Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn
by Exotos135
Summary: "Our world wasn't the first. It was never the first. What happened in the previous world, usually doesn't do anything to the new one. But this time... the creator's mistakes have grown strong enough to affect our world. And if we do nothing about them... then only the lord and savior, will be able to save us."
1. A New Journey Begins

**Merry Christmas everybody! The reboot of Chains of Reality, Divinity Reborn, is officially up! Thanks to everybody for patiently waiting for this reboot, I assure you, your wait will be worth it.**

 **Now, before we begin, there are some things worth pointing out:**

 **1) The number of chapters per arc will be 5-10. Five at minimum, like in this introduction arc, and ten at the very most. So you're not going to have to wait for over 20 chapters for something to be up and done, at worst, it should only be 10.**

 **2) Some things have been changed in this continuity, of course, but most of the stuff in the original is still canon, just in a different form.**

 **3) The characters, both in the prototype and the new reality, all have some sort of brithmark shaped like something specific somewhere around their bodies. If you wanna know what those are for certain characters, go ahead and ask, cuz unless it's important to the current plot, they won't be mentioned at all.**

 **And I think that's about it. I hope you enjoy the fic, and remember... R &R!**

* * *

 **Episode 1: A Dream That Caused Intrigue? Ignore It, Let's Go See the Sisters' Events!**

* * *

Orange clouds, that is the first thing the boy saw. He looked around and saw a barren wasteland. He didn't know how he got there.

An image flashed, one that was quite bizarre, unreal even: One set of ten girls, the ones the boy knew and loved, fighting against... A set of people that looked similar to them? And as they fought with all their strength, a voice spoke:

" _You've done a lot of crazy things, but_ this _time, you've gone too far!_ "

He couldn't tell who was talking, but they certainly didn't seem happy. And they didn't change their tone as more images flashed, and they continued:

" _After everything we did for you, this is how you repay?!_ "

Then the image now showed a large army on the horizon, heading to the war while the other set of sisters stood up, with some difficulty.

" _These are our children!_ "

Next image gave him a closer look at the army, revealing it was composed of people, either close to his age, younger, or older, that looked just like people he knew.

" _Your children!_ "

A thunder roared, with a brief flash taking him to the next picture: The army, all of it, laying on the ground, some in pools of what seemed like blood. One way or another, they certainly didn't look alive.

" _What did they do to deserve this?!_ "

Next image showed the unknown set of sister lookalikes, on their knees, in front of something that was shining, as the voice changed:

" _There's no more hope for them..._ "

This time, he could tell who the voice belonged to.

It belonged to _him_.

" _Or for you... There's only one option left..._ "

An arm was raised, with orange energy soon surrounding it, as the voice turned back to the mysterious one.

" _Wait, Lincoln, please!_ "

The hand prepared to snap its fingers.

" _There must be another way!_ "

 _One snap later..._

The boy, now revealed to be Lincoln, suddenly "snapped" awake, only to see it was already morning. Sunday morning, at that. And while he would usually just go back to sleep right then and there, the boy remembered that he had to go to some of his sisters' events, be there to provide support and all that.

That, and the chance he may end up getting the dream again made going back to sleep a bit harder. Even hugging Bun-Bun, which was something he did until now, wasn't enough to convince him otherwise.

"Good lord, what was that nightmare all about?" Lincoln asked before he noticed you, the readers. "Oh, hi guys, I didn't notice you were here."

Then the boy saw he was still holding Bun-Bun, and he gently put him down before continuing:

"I just had a bit of a nightmare, that I'd rather not talk about. In fact, I think going out and getting some fresh air would help me calm down, and luckily for me, most of my sisters have events for today. And just as luckily, I managed to ask Lisa to make me a schedule that would help me know where and when to go to each event."

The boy got off his bed, changed to his normal outfit, and left the room... With the last action causing Bun-Bun to move its eyes to watch the boy as he left.

"So, besides that, it's been fairly mundane. Sure, It's been quite noisy, I mean what do you expect from the Loud family? But, when it comes to actual life, It's fairly normal," Lincoln continued, growing somber as he looked put his hands on his pockets. "Almost boringly so. And I'm not going to abandon this life the first change I get, but I wouldn't mind it if things weren't so mundane all the time."

Then, Lincoln stopped, and turned to look at Lori and Leni's bedroom's door.

"Although, now that I think about it, some things haven't been... normal, lately..."

The guy walked towards the keyhole and looked through it to see what his eldest sisters were up to. Leni was knitting what looked like a sweater while she sat on her bed, while Lori looked out the window with a look of contemplation.

After hesitating for a bit, Lincoln went into Lori and Leni's bedroom, and Lori and Leni... Didn't even flinch. Leni continued to focus on her things, while Lori continued to look out the window in contemplation.

"See? They don't react when I enter the room without asking," Lincoln remarked, folding his arms. "Now, Leni not reacting isn't so weird, but if you know Lori, she'd turn you into a human pretzel if you entered her and Leni's room without asking first. Or if you entered it in the first place."

"Okay, in my defense, I was in a very grumpy mood when I made that threat," Lori suddenly explained, catching the guy off-guard. "And besides, I'm not really in the mood to do anything to you, Lincoln. I just wanna..."

Lori looked at the ground, then went back to looking at the clouds. "I dunno, wait for something to happen."

"Don't mind her, she's just, like, feeling like watching the clouds today," Leni stated, focusing solely on whatever she was knitting. "You have to see Lisa for something, right? How about you go see her, like, right now? We're going to be fine, honest."

Lincoln didn't want to leave at first, specially since his sisters seemed to be troubled, but after remembering what happened last time he tried to fix their issues, he figured it wouldn't hurt focusing on Lisa for now. So he left, and promptly went to Lisa and Lily's bedroom, where the first thing he saw was Lisa and Lily sitting on the ground, with a boombox nearby.

"Hi Lisa, hi Lily," Lincoln greeted as he walked to the youngsters. "What are you doing?"

"I have heard that classical music pieces can help babies develop their intelligence, or something along those lines," Lisa answered as she took out some headphones and put them on Lily. "So, I'm going to see if I can prove that hypothesis right or wrong with our dear Lily.

Then, the prodigy remembered something.

"By the way, older brother unit, I got your schedule here," Lisa handed the boy a piece of paper. "I managed to adjust it to make sure you don't miss any of their events. And we're both quite lucky: None of the events overlap with each other, in fact, they flow rather nicely."

And so, Lincoln read the schedule. "Okay, let's see, First Luna, then Luan, Lynn, Lucy, Lana, Lola..."

The boy's sudden pause caught Lisa's attention. "Is there a problem?"

"Lisa, why isn't your name on this schedule?"

Lisa rolled her eyes and walked out of the room. "Oh, please, Lincoln, you already have enough to deal with. Besides, my matters and events are something much too advanced for someone with your intelligence."

Then she yelled, "Mom! Can you drive me to Darcy's house?!"

"Sure, darling, just give me a minute!"

"Okay, I got the schedule, now I just need to wait for my trusty partner to come!" Lincoln said as he rolled up the schedule. "And I think we both know who I'm talking about."

Mere moments later, Lincoln bolted straight to the door as somebody knocked three times. And once he opened it, he saw none other than his best friend, Clyde McBride, standing outside.

"Sargeant Clyde, ready for service!" the boy greeted, pulling the "yes sir" gesture. "What's on the schedule for today?"

"Before I say anything, I need you to honestly tell me if you're willing to spend the day going to my sisters' events," Lincoln asked, folding his arms as he did. "I mean, I'm used to going to their events whether I like it or not, but I usually go alone. You sure you're prepared to join me?"

As Clyde answered, two familiar figures came downstairs: Charles, the family dog, who ran as fast as he could to reach the first floor, and Bun-Bun, Lincoln's bunny plush, who was now moving on its own.

"Absolutely, General Lincoln! Through fire and the flames, I'll be by your side! And besides, my parents gave me permission to go with you, so that little deal's dealt with."

"Okay, in that case, the first one we gotta see is Luna, who's at the school getting ready for her music practice," Lincoln explained as he pointed Luna's part in the schedule. "So, let's get going!"

"You got it!"

So the boys left the house as Charles and Bun-Bun watching them go, the dog suddenly getting sad before the bunny plush comforted him.

 _Sometime later, at the Royal Woods' High School..._

Clyde and Lincoln walked around the hallways of the high school, getting several weird look from all the students that were still trapped on the dreaded building. One of these students were none other than Luna, one of Lincoln's several sisters, who held her guitar while standing outside the music classroom.

"Bro! Clyde! You actually came?!" Luna exclaimed in relief and shock. "When I asked you if you could come bring me some support, I didn't think you'd actually come here and do it! And I didn't think you'd come with Clyde either! I thought you had other things to do?"

"Nah, It's okay, the schedules just so happen to go on a simple list," Lincoln explained as he took out the schedule. "And you're the very first one here."

"What do you need help with, Luna?" Clyde asked, putting his hands on his hips.

"Well, It's nothing extreme, I just need some reassurance from my favorite little brother, and also a sane man who can stop me from embarrassing myself," the rocker answered, as a shadowy figure slowly approached her from behind. "You see, I got a certain someone to teach me how to pull off some rockin' guitar tricks, and It's someone that gives me butterflies."

"Oooh," the boys said in unison, before Lincoln asked, "Who's this certain someone?"

Suddenly, the shadowy figure not only revealed itself to be Sam, but slapped Luna in the butt so hard, she let out a loud scream, all while the blonde musician chirped:

"Good morning, Lamp!"

"G-G-Good morning, S-Sam," Luna stammered as she turned to the blonde musician, only to whisper to the boys, "I managed to ask Sam to teach me a few tricks, but she turned out to be so much more intense than I thought!"

"So, who are these little guys?" Sam suddenly asked, catching the trio's attention. "And why are they here? They look more like middle schoolers to me."

"That's because they kinda are, Love," Luna rubbed the back of her head. "These are my brother, and his best friend, ya see, I-"

" _I_ don't have time to hear the full story, and neither do you," Sam interrupted, waving her hand in a dismissive manner. "We have to go into the music club and start practicing right away!"

"B-But, Sam, you just arrived," the brunette rockstar pointed out. "You're usually so much more laid back, what's the rush?"

"I just remembered that I have an important event to go to, and It's an event I don't want to miss, unless I want a certain brat to steal my spot," Sam replied, growing angry at the mention of the brat. "And besides, you know what Mick Swagger says!"

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Fish and Chips are good apart, but amazing together?"

Sam looked at her quizzically. "N-No, the other saying."

"To be a great musician, you gotta focus on the music, and let it flow, but also make sure to find the right rhythm to it."

"Ha, such inspirational words!" Sam moaned in delight. "Yes, that basically means we need to practice whenever we can, so we can find the right melody quickly!"

Luna hummed and scratched her chin. "I... Guess I see where you're coming from."

Sam clasped her hands in excitement. "Good! Then let's get in!"

Luna nodded and Sam opened the door, allowing the brunette music fan to go into the room, giving her a flirty wink afterwards. When Lincoln and Clyde tried to follow, however, Sam got in front of them and snapped.

"Guys are not allowed in here, _you're_ staying outside."

Clyde quickly replied, "But, we're here for Luna's sake!"

Lincoln, still surprised by the change of tone from Sam, added, "Y-Yeah, and besides, we're not going to distract you or anything, we'll just be there as emotional support!"

If Sam's ensuing furious glare was any indication, she didn't care.

"You're staying outside, and that's final!"

Without hesitation, Sam closed the door on the duo's faces, hitting their noses in the process. And as the guys rubbed their injured noses, Lincoln could see from inside Luna and Sam sitting next to each other, with Luna gesturing Lincoln and Clyde that she wasn't mad.

"Well, I guess this is as far as we can help Luna for now," Clyde remarked as Luna waved goodbye. "I mean, we could try to barge in, but after seeing Sam's sudden change, I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Well, at least Luna looks like she understands, even though it's clear she's worried about being left alone with Sam," Lincoln and Clyde returned the waving and then walked to the exit. "Okay, so the next thing on the schedule is Luan, who's at the clown school."

"Isn't that a couple miles away from here?" Clyde pointed out.

Realizing what that meant, the boys ran off to try and arrive to the clown school as quickly as possible.

 _Later, at the clown school of Royal Woods..._

Lincoln and Clyde entered the school and ran to the auditorium as fast as they could, where they saw Luan and Giggles, both wearing clown outfits, waiting for Maggie to arrive, with the judge sitting nearby. There was also a peculiar sight among the empty seats, which was Silas, a goth boy Lucy used to have a crush on, sitting there, though he wasn't really noticed.

"Hi Lincoln! Hi Clyde!" Luan greeted as the guys reached the clown girls and caught their breath. "I'm really happy that you could come, Maggie should be here any minute now."

"Oh hey, you didn't greet us with a pun this time," Lincoln remarked.

"Of course, we need to save as many jokes as we can for Maggie!" Giggles replied, putting her hand on her hip. "After all, we didn't go all out the previous years, and we failed to make her laugh, but this year will be different!"

In that very moment, a certain someone kicked the door open, catching everybody's attention. This certain someone was none other than Maggie, who promptly walked towards the clown girls. When Lincoln saw her, another image flashed in his mind:

Someone who looked like Maggie was on the ground, trying to stand back up despite being quite badly bruised. Strangely, the Maggie lookalike was wearing clothing that reminded Lincoln of Colonel Crackers, Luan's old ventriloquist dummy, but colored black.

And just as the girl was engulfed by light, the vision suddenly ended, bringing Lincoln back to reality. However, he had no time to think about what to make out of the vision, so he just shrugged it off.

"Best of luck to you, Luan," Lincoln stated, giving his sister and her friend a thumbs up, with Clyde doing the same.

The girls returned the thumbs up just as Maggie

"Hi, Maggie, nice to see you again," Luan chirped, trying to keep her cool. "Now, how about we-"

Then, without warning, Maggie spoke:

"Luan, Giggles, I'm not in a very good mood right now, so I'm going to be blunt."

Maggie took a deep breath.

"Is there a point in trying to make me laugh anymore?"

The girls tried to answer, but they were stopped when Maggie immediately added afterwards:

"We've been through this for a couple of times now, in the past couple of years: You pick me to go to this place, I come to this place, suffer through your unfunny nonsense, and then I leave, with nobody being satisfied. The first time, I felt dissatisfied. The second time, I felt angry. This time, though? I feel..."

The emo looked at the ground somberly.

"I always felt like at least one of you-Luan-never cared about my feelings, but I figured you'd at least let me rest, let me free, let me try and forget I was ever a part of this nonsense."

"M-Maggie, you don't understand," Giggles replied, taking a step forward and earning an angry look from the teenager. "We came to this school because we wanted to learn how to make people smile. How to make them feel happy. And, seeing how you're so sad all the time, we thought we would be doing you a favor if we tried making you smile."

"Yeah, what Giggles is saying is true!" Luan added, earning an even anrgier look from Maggie. Though this look implied she was about to snap or something. "We wanted to see if our training had paid off because if we can make you smile with our sense of humor, then certainly we can make other people happy as well!"

"You! Are! Clowns!" the emo suddenly snapped, shedding tears as she continued to yell at the duo. "Your purpose in the world of entertainment is making people laugh _at_ you, not _with_ you! Nothing _you_ do will make people laugh! Not jokes, not puns, nothing! The only way you, as a clown, can make people happy, is when you make yourself look like a laughingstock!"

The comedians gasped, with Luan looking like she was about to collapse in shock. But did Maggie stop there? Of course not.

"Nothing else you can try will make you seem funny. Only your misery will make people happy. Only when they see how much more miserable you are than them, will they start feeling better about themselves. Only your pain, your torment, your... Suffering..." the emo paused, almost as if she was hesitant to finish. And though she continued nonetheless, her tone and voice grew weaker and more quiet than usual. "Only by those things... Will you make people laugh... And even then... They won't see you and your comedy as being funny... They'll see your misery as being funny..."

Finally, Maggie turned back to Luan, and finished with a simple, bitter statement:

"Just like how you saw _my_ misery!"

With that said and done, Maggie covered her face and ran out of the building while Giggles, clearly shaken by the emo's words, walked to Luan's side and comforted her, all while she looked like she was simply... speechless... prompting Lincoln to go to his sister's side.

"L-Luan, are you okay?!" the boy exclaimed with worry. "Do you need something?!"

"Maybe we could give her some space?" Clyde nervously suggested.

"Yes... Clyde's... Right..." Luan uttered, trying to stay standing. "I... I... I need... I need to take a breather... And I think you also need to go see Lynn's thing now?"

"Luan has a point," Clyde remarked as he snatched and showed the schedule. "According to your schedule, Lynn's game's about to start. Where is it taking place anyway?"

"It's at the stadium, which is very close to here," Lincoln sighed and turned back to Luan. "Okay, we're gonna go there and leave you two alone."

"Tell Lynn I say hi," Luan somberly requested.

The boys nodded, and promptly left the building, with Silas' eye briefly glowing grey as he watched the pair leave.

 _Back at the Loud house..._

Lori sat on the couch, still with a look of contemplation, while grabbing her head in a way as if to hide her forehead. She looked at the ground, unsure of what to do next, when she was joined by Leni, who sat right next to her.

"Lori?" Leni blurted, catching the young woman's attention. "Is something the matter?"

Lori looked back and hesitated to answer.

"I, like, noticed that you've looked... contemplative, for quite a while," Leni added. "If there's something on your mind, then you can tell me about it. I mean, our siblings are busy doing their stuff, and mom and dad are off to work at... The dentist office and the restaurant, so you can't talk with anybody else."

After a couple more seconds wondering what she should do, Lori took a deep breath, stood up, and stated:

"They're going to find out the truth eventually."

Leni rubbed her forehead as Lori started to walk back and forth.

"That place, the progenitors, everything is going to be revealed one way or another, and guess who are the ones that have to start the chain reaction of revelations? Us!" Lori stopped and pulled her hair. "And worst of all, we don't know when we're going to have to tell them the truth, just that we'll have to do it eventually!"

"Lori, we've talked about this already," Leni stood up, put her hands on Lori's shoulders and made her look at her, face-to-face. "We'll reveal the truth whenever it needs to be revealed. And once we reveal them, we just need to guide our siblings into understand everything: The organization, the sisters, and specially."

Leni parted Lori's hair covering her forehead, revealing a rectangular birthmark in three segments: The first one was colored pink, the second one was colored light blue, and the final segment, looking like a circle, was orange.

"The castes."

 _Meanwhile, at the stadium..._

Lincoln and Clyde reached the audience seats, and stopped to catch their breath, with barely a second passing before they heard somebody shout:

"Look out!"

Lincoln turned to look at the voice, and saw it came from Polly Pain. And then he turned to look elsewhere, and next thing he knew, he felt a sharp pain in his face before falling unconscious. By the time he woke up, a certain athlete was looming over him: Lynn, sporting a wide smile... And with orange thunderclouds covering the sky. However, blinking once made the clouds turn back to normal almost immediately.

"Hey, Linc!" the jock greeted, seemingly unaware or just not caring about her brother's confused look. "You came a bit late, but I'm glad you showed up at all."

"Uh, hi, Lynn, Luan says hi," Lincoln said as he grabbed his head. "What happened?"

"Polly Pain tried to warn us not to get too close, 'cause Lynn just did a homerun, and the ball hit you right in the face," Clyde explained as he and Polly Pain helped Lincoln get up. "Luckily, you don't seem to be that injured."

"And most importantly, the ball's perfectly fine!" Lynn chirped before showing the baseball to the guys. "Now I can put this ball with my collection of winning balls!"

"Dude, your brother just got hit by a baseball, and you're focusing on the stupid ball?!" Polly scolded, narrowing her eyes.

"This isn't a stupid ball, Polly," Lynn sternly replied. "it's a ball that symbolizes the victory my team had today!"

"It wasn't a team victory."

Everybody turned around and saw Margo walking towards Lynn, stern look on her face and arms folded behind her back.

"Uh, come again?" Lynn tilted her head.

"This wasn't a team victory," Margo repeated as she reached the athlete. "This was _your_ victory. Get the terminology right."

"Bah, my victory, team victory, who cares? We won the game!" the athlete argued, making Margo narrow her eyes in annoyance. "Isn't that what matters in the end?! We all trained so hard for this thing-"

Polly promptly pointed out, "And you wound up hogging up all the spotlight."

"Well, being the star player does that to you, I suppose," Margo rolled her eyes, which glew red. "I should know, I was one once."

"Yeah, what Margo said: it's not my fault, I'm just doing what's expected of me as the star player!" Lynn replied, folding her arms. "Why would you care, anyway? It's not like you're part of my softball team."

"I care because you act like this regardless of sport!" Polly stated, stomping the ground furiously. "Softball, baseball, roller skating, I could name any sport I know about, and no matter what sport I picked, you'd be the same: Eager to show off, utterly selfish, and completely unable to accept either loss, or when you make mistakes."

"Ugh, again with this nonsense, when will you understand that nobody cares about that stuff?" Lynn said, waving her hand in a dismissive manner.

"And we don't have time either," Clyde said, checking the schedule again. "Lucy's thing is about to begin!"

"Dang it, I forgot I need to be at the poetry club, too!" Polly exclaimed, before quickly putting on her helmet and her roller skates. "Well, only one thing left to do. Grab my waist, boys!"

Lincoln and Clyde exchanged looks, then promptly grabbed Polly's waist, with the girl bolting off to the poetry club right away, leaving behind a surprised Lynn and Margo.

 _Moments later, at the poetry club..._

The patrons, almost solely consisting of goths and what not, waited on their tables for the entertainment to come up. What was this entertainment? A simple duet known as Polly Pain and Tabby, though only the latter was in the building at the moment, playing her saxophone.

She was joined by two other figures, Lucy, Lincoln's gothic sister, and Haiku, Lucy's friend. The normally calm and montone Haiku looked worried and stressed, while holding a clipboard on her hands.

"Where's Polly Pain!?" Haiku asked in a panic. "It's been 15 minutes and there's still no sign of her! And worst of all, you're just wasting your time on sax instead of looking for her!"

"The patrons are starting to get impatient for their obligatory inspiration music," Lucy pointed out. "Which just so happens to be a mix of saxophone with drums, who knew?"

"Relax, Haiku," Tabby replied, rolling her eyes. "Just be patient, Polly will be here soon enough."

"I hope so, because Polly and you should've started a while ago!" Haiku stated, biting her nails as she paced back and forth. "Without your music, the poets can't focus on trying to get ideas for their poems or their stories. I heard that one poet needed your music so badly, he had to wait months before continuing his story about a boy traumatized after being beaten up by his sisters!"

"Relax, Haiku. Geez, you're quite a worrywart sometimes," Tabby rolled her eyes and brushed the goth's hair. "Knowing Polly, she got caught up watching a sports festival or something. Trust me, she's going to come any minute now."

Then the rocker pointed at the door and counted, "In fact, I bet she's going to crash through the door in 5... 4... 3.. 2... 1..."

Tabby gave the door the pointer finger, and waited for a couple seconds for Polly to arrive. For the first five or so, it looked like she wasn't going to appear, but then, without warning, Polly crashed through the door, stopping just before crashing into Tabby, Lucy, and Haiku, with Lincoln and Clyde just barely managing not to let go and be sent flying away.

"Okay, I was a bit off, but she still did arrive," Tabby shrugged. "What took you so long?"

Polly released the guys as she explained, "I had to stay behind to see Margo play in Lynn's softball match-"

"Nice, but we can't muck about right now, so save the rest for later," Tabby extended her hand towards Polly. "Ready to play some music?"

Polly nodded and smiled before shaking hands with the rocker, prompting Lincoln, Clyde, Haiku, and Lucy to go sit at a table. Once they sat down, Polly went to her drums and started beating them, before being joined by Tabby's slick, flowy saxophone music. And judging from the patrons actually putting up smiles, they were quite pleased by the music.

"Thanks for bringing Polly here, Lincoln," Lucy said with a little smile. "I was starting to think Haiku would get a panic attack before she appeared."

"No problem, at least you get to enjoy the music now," Lincoln checked his schedule. "Clyde and I, meanwhile, have to go see Lana at the dogcare center."

"I understand," Lucy nodded. "See ya later."

Lincoln and Clyde soon got up, and after Clyde blew kisses at Haiku-with the poet doing the same-the boys bolted out of the club while Lucy and Haiku listened blissfully to Polly and Tabby's melody.

 _Just then, back at the Loud house..._

Lori and Leni immediately stood up when they heard the vanzilla returning to the garage. The duo bolted from the living room to the garage as fast as they could, tripping into something in the process. This something was Lisa, who looked rather upset for some reason.

"Watch where you're going, eldest sister units!" the prodigy snapped as she got up and dusted herself. "It's bad enough my only friend rejected my proposal, but you could've seriously injured me just then! Now if you excuse me, I must begin a study on how much a pillow can absorb tears before it grows moist."

Lisa stomped her way to her and Lily's bedroom, and Lori and Leni got up and dusted themselves just as their worried parents arrived at the scene.

"Like, what's up with her?" Leni inquired worriedly.

"Oh, we just came back from Darcy's house," Lynn Sr. explained. "She's the first friend Lisa's ever gotten, and after she refused to help her with her "giant robot" plans, she... became really angry about it."

"Speaking of odd stuff like giant robots, there's something that Lori would like to ask you," Leni blurted, putting a hand on her older sister's shoulder.

The eldest Loud tilted her head. "I do?"

Leni nodded, and Lori could feel chills go up her spine as she realized what this certain something was. So, the young woman took a deep breath, and asked:

"So, you guys know that there's a lot of things we'll have to reveal to our siblings someday. Have you been able to figure out when that day's coming, so we can prepare ourselves?"

The parents exchanged worried looks, but before Lynn Sr. could try to answer, Rita gestured him to shut up and took a step forward before giving her answer:

"I'm afraid that day's today, sweetheart."

Lori and Leni's entire world shattered to pieces.

"We've been called to go work for an extended period of time, potentially a month, in order to be able to... well, do important stuff you already know about," Rita added. "When we were told about this, our bosses told us that there's no more time to wait, our kids needs to know about their true natures... because..."

The woman hesitated to finish, prompting Lynn Sr. to do so instead:

"The progenitors are coming."

 _Back with Lincoln and Clyde..._

The boys ran as fast as they could to the dogcare center, having already lost too much time with the other events. As they ran, however, Lincoln took the time to speak to Clyde:

"So, can I tell you something that's been bothering me today?"

Clyde asked, "The fact that we've failed to follow the schedule up until now?"

"Yeah, that too," Lincoln rolled his eyes. "But no, a couple times, I saw some weird visions."

Clyde raised an eyebrow. "Well, what did you see?"

Lincoln took a deep breath and explained to the best of his ability:

"Okay, first, when I saw Maggie, I saw someone who looked like her, but wearing Colonel Crackers' clothes. Then, when I woke up at the stadium, the clouds were orange for a split second."

Clyde hummed. "Maybe you're getting visions of a past life or something?"

"Maybe, but still-"

Lana narrowed her eyes. "Is there a problem with that?"

The boys stopped right on their tracks and looked at the situation outside the dogcare center: Lana was having a heated argument with a familiar toddler, Claire, with Lola nearby, holding a large trophy while she looked at the discussion with indifference.

"No, you have your opinion on animals, and you just so happen to like reptiles more than other animals," Claire explained, looking away as she added, "But you know, some people say that the type of animal people like can sometimes say a lot about the type of person they are, and you know how reptiles are seen as venomous, treacherous, and many other negative words."

Suddenly realizing what the toddler was trying to say, Lana frowned and snapped, "I'm not a backstabber or something like that! I'm a nice person!"

With a stern glare, and eyes glowing dark blue, Claire bluntly answered:

" _Telling_ me does nothing to change my mind."

"Um, did we get here at a bad time?" Lincoln remarked, catching the girls' attention. "I mean, I'm sure we arrived late, Lola's here with her trophy after all, but-"

"No, you came just at the right time," Lola answered as Lana exchanged furious glares with Claire. "Lana got into an argument with this toddler named Claire, I think she came to our house sometime ago, but they got into an argument and it seems to be going rather badly."

Lana turned to spot Lincoln, then sent one last glare at Claire before stating, "I gotta go, my brother came up for me "

Claire just rolled her eyes and left without even answering back, further upsetting the tomboy plumber as she walked to her brother. Once she was right next to Lola, she hissed, "Don't ask."

"We won't, don't worry," Clyde replied. "Now, why's Lola here? Wasn't she going to be at a beauty pageant?"

"I did go to one of those, and it was supposed to last longer, but Lindsey Sweetwater, my old rival, didn't show up," the diva smugly explained. "What normally would've been a bit of a pain in my bum with her in it, turned into a cakewalk without her to hinder my efforts, and I won the pageant without even trying!"

"Lindsey didn't come?" Lincoln asked, earning a nod from his diva of a sister. "Why?"

"I dunno, but who cares? At least this earned me a great victory!" Lola proudfully stated. "The other girls are nothing compared to Lindsey or me. Mostly me."

"Ugh, please save your boasting for when we're back home, alright?" Lana complained, folding her arms. "Come on, let's go back home so I can be away from Lola when she start blabbing about her day."

The boys, not seeing anything else they had to take care of, just shrugged and started walking back to the Loud house with the twins. That is, until a particular voice called:

"Hey, Lame-O!"

Once everybody heard that, they turned around and were left shocked at the sight of a certain someone running towards the white-haired guy:

"Ronnie Anne?!"

- **Next Chapter Preview** -

"Hey everybody, Lincoln here!"

As Lincoln said the next, a piece of a scene with him and Ronnie Anne talking and meeting once more played:

"Man, today's been crazy, first Ronnie Anne's back,"

It then cut to a scene of Luna-alongside Lynn, Luan, and Lucy, all sitting on the ground-speaking with Lincoln.

"And now Lori and Leni have something to tell me."

The scene changed once more, showing Lori and Leni speaking with Lincoln at the kitchen.

"Or more accurately, something to tell us."

Next the scene showed a nervous Lori and a calmer Leni standing in front of their siblings, the former seemingly getting ready to speak.

"I wonder what they have to say?"

Then, as Lincoln said the next, Lori whispered something to Leni:

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

As Lincoln spoke the next chapter's name, the scene changed to show Lori explaining something to the sisters, who all listened intently. And of course, Lincoln seemed to be the most interest on what she was saying out of all of them.

"Lori and Leni's Revelation! Can We Believe Such Harsh, Yet Baffling Truth?!"

Then the scene changed to show Ronnie, Clyde, Lily, and Lincoln-holding Bun-Bun on his arms-sitting on the backyard grass, with Ronnie seemingly making fun of the fact. If Lincoln speaking normally and hugging the plush bunny afterwards was any indication, though, it didn't faze him.

"Don't miss it!"

Ronnie looked away from the boy, and Lynn made a slide remark that made the other sisters laugh... until the scene showed someone watching from the skies.


	2. Revelations

**Heya, Exotos again, bringing you the next and final chapter for CoR for this year. So, in the original draft of this story, I wrote some "last chapter recaps" to keep people up to speed with the plot. Right now, however, I'm not going to do any of that stuff. I first want to know what you guys think, because as my partner A Hopeful Observer told me, It's good to listen to the reviewers' opinions.**

 **Now, since the story's pretty new and there aren't over a hundred reviews like before, I'll actually take some time to answer them. I know that's what other authors have been doing, but again, It's nice to do that once in a while:**

 **1) King Genocide = Yup, we're back, baby!**

 **2) Nobody245 = Thank you.**

 **3) GennaiArakida-XIV = Yeah, all that happened.**

 **4) Finnjr63 = Thanks, you too.**

 **5) The Bodacious E = I'm happy you're happy.**

 **6) ChernoMan = Yup, some planning was involved.**

 **7) animehero1000 = Merry Christmas to you too, even though It's New Years Eve XD, and yeah, lots of improvement.**

 **8) Guest = I'm happy that you liked it, and I don't wanna ask too much, but uh, could you put a name on your review next time? For yourself? You could still be a guest, but with an explicit name so I don't... get confused. Also, about the birthmark and locations:**

 **Ronnie Anne, rectangle, one of her cheeks.**

 **Cristina, a crescent moon, on her neck.**

 **Paige, a square, on her chest.**

 **Carol, that will be revealed later.**

 **Tabby, a crescent moon, on her chest.**

 **Giggles, a five-leaf flower, on one of her cheeks.**

 **Polly, a fist, one of her shoulders.**

 **Haiku, a skull, forehead.**

 **Well, that was weird. Let's go back to _normal_ weird and head on to the story!**

* * *

 **Episode 2: History of a Lost World! A Revelation That Turned Our World Upside-Down!**

* * *

Lincoln and Clyde stood in amazement as Ronnie Anne ran towards them, waving her hand as high as she could to get their attention. However, Lincoln was way too dumbfounded by one simple fact: After moving away to live with her Casagrande cousins, Ronnie Anne was back?!

"Oh hey, isn't that Lincoln's not-so-secret girlfriend?" Lola nonchalantly pointed out, earning an "are you serious?" look from her twin sister. "I thought she left a long time ago 'cause their relationship was accidentally revealed to us?"

"If by "accidentally revealed" you mean "take a certain conversation they had out of context and jump to conclusions," then yeah, that's totally what happened," Lana growled, folding her arms. "Anyway, we should probably let Lincoln take a couple seconds before-"

She was quickly shut up when Clyde casually pushed Lincoln forward, moments before Ronnie Anne leaped towards him and hugged him just as he fell backwards into the floor.

"You don't know how much I missed seeing you in real life, and not in a tiny computer screen!" the Hispanic tomboy chirped as she got off Lincoln and helped him get up, getting a good feel of his skin in the process. "I had certainly forgotten how soft your skin was, too. Seriously, Lame-O, what's your secret?"

Lincoln gently broke off from Ronnie's grip. "Ronnie Anne, aren't you supposed to be living with your Casagrande cousins?"

"Yeah, but Bobby and I discovered something crazy: There's a big tunnel system underneath both our house and our cousins' apartment, that allow us to go from there to Royal Woods, and a bunch of other places in no time!" Ronnie excitedly explained, her eyes turning into glowing rectangles as she finished. "Isn't that awesome?!"

"I... guess?" Lincoln shrugged. "I honestly can't tell if you're being serious or if you're joking."

And then, the duo heard somebody whistling, and they turned around to see the twins gesturing their brother to come with them.

"Sorry, Ronnie Anne, but I have to walk Lola and Lana back home," Lincoln said, rubbing the back of his head, slightly worried over what would be the tomboy's reaction.

Surprisingly enough, she seemed rather... chipper about it. "No biggie, I'll just come with you! I was going to head over to your house anyway, I wanna see what I missed since I moved in with my cousins."

And so, the tomboy joined the quartet as they resumed their walk back to the Loud house, and for the rest of the walk, Ronnie Anne told the twins, Lincoln, and Clyde about how it's been going for her, though Clyde and Lincoln seemed to be the only ones interested in hearing her talk. Eventually, it wasn't long before the team found themselves at the Loud house, where, much to their surprise, Lucy, Lynn, Luan, and Luna were sitting at the porch.

"Oh hey, Lincoln's back!" Luna remarked once she spotted them. "And they bring the twins and... Ronnie Anne with them?!"

"Hi Rock-O!" Ronnie cheerfully greeted as she walked up to Luna and shook hands with her. "It's nice to meet you in person at last!"

"Oh right, the only ones of us you've ever met in person were Lori and Luan," the rocker smiled. "We should probably try to properly meet later, but for now..."

Luna turned to her brother. "Lincoln, Lori and Leni have been waiting for you. They're at the kitchen right now, so go meet them before you do anything else."

Naturally, the boy couldn't help but ask, "What do they need?"

"Don't ask us, all they told us was that they needed to discuss something important with you, and you alone," Lynn explained, rolling her eyes and placing her arms behind her head. "I can't really think of anything that that could only discuss with you, but whatever, Lori and Leni are sometimes just that hard to read."

"We'll keep Ronnie Anne and Clyde occupied while you talk with them," Luan added as Ronnie and Clyde sat by her side. "So, go ahead and see what Lori and Leni need."

Ronnie Anne, Clyde, and Lincoln exchanged looks, and with the boy's friends giving him a reassuring wink, and walked towards the door, only to turn to Luna and ask:

"So, how did the music lessons with Sam go?" he tilted his head in curiosity. "I can guess everything went fine, or bad in Luan's case, for the rest, but I'm not quite sure about you."

Judging from the way Luna flinched, they didn't go as she planned.

"Well, let's just say, it went the dull and wicked ordinary way," Luna brushed Lincoln's hair. "And now I'm sorry I missed you."

The boy just chuckled at the statement and returned the hair brushing before the duo stopped, allowing Lincoln to continue going forward to the house.

"By the way, little bro?" Luna blurted, getting her brother's attention. "I'm sorry about the whole thing with Sam earlier. I should've told you that when it comes to music, she can become rather... stern and passionate, to say the least."

"And I'd like to apologize for the scene at the clown school," Luan added, scratching the back of her head. "Truth be told, now that I think about it, I probably should've figured Maggie wasn't in the best of moods when I asked her to come to the school. She prefers some _mal_ type of _content_ , hahaha, get it?"

"I don't think I have apologize for anything," Lynn shrugged with a confident smile. "I just wanted to thank your face for being a great ball catcher."

"And Haiku and I would like to thank you for bringing Polly Pain to the poetry club," Lucy said, clasping her hands. "Haiku was overjoyed about it, but since she had some business to take care of, she asked me to tell you about our gratitude towards you."

The boy smiled, gave his sisters a thumbs up, and went inside the house as Ronnie Anne started to tell everybody about why she was back. And the first thing the boy was greeted by once he went inside was Charles, who pushed him into falling into the floor before licking his cheeks.

"Ah Charles! I missed you too, but knock it off!" Lincoln laughed before petting his favorite dog. "Listen, boy, I have to go see what Lori and Leni want from me, so I need you to stay calm and keep the other pets at bay, alright?"

The dog nodded without hesitation. And so, Lincoln got up, dusted himself, and walked to the kitchen while the other pets reunited with Charles, with Bun-Bun sitting on top of Cliff. Charles turned to his fellow animal pals, and somehow spoke with them telepathically.

"Okay, everybody, Lincoln just returned and Lori and Leni are about to let him know about what they're about to do," Charles told to the other pets, who just rolled their eyes while Bun-Bun gave a thumbs up... or tried to, anyway. "Until then, we're supposed to stay calm, and I assume we also need to act as comfort pets during the revelation. So, stay calm, and make sure the other pets learn about this, okay?"

"Of course, not much else we can do now that we're stuck in these animalistic bodies," Walt telepathically replied, flying to the ground and folding his wings. "I still don't understand why he saw the sisters fit to remain in their physical bodies, but saw us fit to be stuck as the family's pets. That's so degrading!"

"Right, cuz degradation wasn't that big of a deal back in "that place" of course," Cliff scoffed. " Come on, let's just go tell the other pets so they're up to date."

The pets nodded in agreement, and so they separated to give the rest of the zoo that was the Loud house the news.

Then, just as Lincoln was about to enter the kitchen, he overheard Lori saying:

"How could those jerks do this to us?!"

So of course, he decided to wait for a little bit and hear the rest of the conversation:

"Lori, you know that mom and dad are doing the best they can," Leni said, trying to comfort the nervous young woman. "It's not their fault that they had to leave us with this... difficult task at hand."

"I know, I'm not upset about the fact they put the responsibility to us!" Lori snapped, slamming her fist down the table. "I'm angry, because they had to have known about this before, they just had to! Their workplace has great technology, and has been watching the progenitors for months, and yet, they wait until now to let us know when they're coming?!"

"Calm down, Lori, look, let's wait until Lincoln's here, okay?"

That was Lincoln's cue to enter, although when he fully stepped into the kitchen, he got yet another vision:

Now, rather than being in the kitchen with Lori and Leni sitting at the table, it was in the middle of some place with clouds for floor, with Lori and Leni no longer at the table. Instead, people who looked like Lana, Lola, Lucy, Lynn, Lisa, Luna, and Luan sat there, who were apparently waiting for him to arrive. Once he took another step, the sister lookalikes turned to look at him moments before the vision ended, returning him to reality.

"Hi Lincoln, we were waiting for you," Leni said, catching the boy's attention. "Please sit down."

The boy blinked twice to make sure he was in reality for real, and once he verified it, he sat down at the other side of the table.

"So, what did you need to discuss with me?" Lincoln asked, taking a brief look around.

"There's something we have to tell everybody," Lori answered, looking at the ground. "Something that's very... shocking, and hard to understand, but something you have to find out now."

"But first and foremost, we'd like to know, have you seen any weird visions lately?" Leni inquired, clasping her hands. "We, like, would like to know about that first before anything."

The boy hummed to himself, then answered, "I've been getting a couple of weird visions lately. When I went to see Luan, I saw an odd version of Maggie, and when I went to see Lynn, the skies were suddenly orange."

Lori flinched and tried to maintain her composure as Leni said, "Thanks, Lincoln, please let everybody else in. We're, like, ready to tell them something."

Lincoln nodded, waved goodbye, and left. And once he was out of sight, Lori got a panic attack:

"He's getting visions of that place!" she said, clutching her chest as she caught her breath. "Today really is the time to tell them about everything!"

"Calm down, Lori, freaking out won't help anybody," Leni remarked, rubbing her sister's shoulder. "We'll wait until Lincoln tells everybody to come, then we'll tell them everything so you can get those heavy burdens off your shoulder."

Lori took several deep breaths before taking a look at Leni's reassuring look, which greatly helped her calm down, somehow. "O... okay... you're right..."

Leni hugged Lori afterwards, and Lori smiled before returning said hug.

As for Lincoln? He reached the frontyard, just in time to see Ronnie excitedly continue her explanation to his sisters, and a bored Clyde.

"Then you turn to the right, then the left, and finally to the right again, and boom, you're outside Burpin' Burger!" Ronnie chirped. "One of the tunnels lead to Burpin' Burger, for crying out-"

The tomboy stopped when she got a look from Luan, apparently sensing a pun coming soon. And so, the tomboy finished:

"In a needlessly high volume!"

Luan's smile turned into a disappointed frown, and Lincoln arrived at the scene.

"Hey guys," he greeted. "Lori and Leni spoke with me, and they told me to tell you that they need to tell something important to us. So, I need you to come with me to the living room, where they'll tell us this important...whatever it is."

The sisters exchanged looks, and moments later, Lincoln sat at the couch alongside Luan, Lynn, Luna, and Lucy, while Ronnie and Clyde rested on the ground with Lily, the twins, and an upset Lisa, and Lori and Leni stood in front of them, the former visibly nervous. The pets were with the younger sisters, and Bun-Bun was being held by Lincoln.

"Okay, Lincoln, thanks for bringing our sisters," Leni said before noticing Clyde and Ronnie. "But what are your friends doing here?"

"They insisted on being here, just in case you needed some neutral opinions," the guy nonchalantly explained. "Now, you had something to tell us?"

"R-Right, the information... that we were going to tell you... b-but first, how about you tell us how your days went?" the self-proclaimed leader of the Loud kids suggested, earning a baffled look from their siblings. "More specifically, how about Luna, Luan, Lynn, and Lucy tell us how their days went? After all, literally the first thing you did when you came here was wait for Lincoln."

And as their siblings thought about the idea, Leni grabbed Lori and pulled her towards her, before whispering, "What are you doing?!"

"Leni, I'm sorry, but I just can't tell them point-blank about all this stuff! Lincoln may've calmed them down, but we're another story!" Lori whispered back, trying to keep her composure. "Besides, you're just as curious as I am about their stories, right? If we find out how their days went, we'll know how much we need to hold back so they don't learn too much!"

Leni narrowed her eyes. "Lori, you, like, know that the longer you stall the revelation, the less prepared they're going to be for when we tell them about it! We need to-"

"Sure."

The duo turned around to see Luna, Luan, Lynn, and Lucy looking at them, before the rocker finished:

"We'll tell you how our days went, and then, you can tell us about this information you want to share."

"Excellent!" Lori chirped while Leni stood next to her, seemingly stunned. "So, who would like to start?"

"I will," Luna took a deep breath. "So, you all know I have a crush on my classmate, Sam. Well, I managed to ask her to give me some guitar lessons-"

Luan immediately chirped up. "Aw, Luna, that's so-!"

"Love, please let me finish first," Luna sternly interrupted, before resuming. "So, the lessons began and... well..."

 _Luna's flashback..._

"Okay, now that your brother and his friend are out of this, sorry about that by the way, I need to ask you what you would like for starters," Sam said as she strum her guitar. "Would you like to start with how to do the highs, the lows..."

Then, with a stern tone, she finished, "Or would you rather start by explaining to me what were you thinking?"

"Well, I-" Luna quickly realized what happened. "W-Wait, what?"

"Come on, Luna, I may be blonde, but that's no reason for you to think I'm stupid!" Sam snapped, standing up and putting her hands on her hips. "I've heard about your shows before, and I've even been to one of them! Your guitar skills are sicker than me that time I tried to eat haggis!"

Luna was confused at the statement. "Is... is that a metaphor, or did that really happen?"

"Who cares?!" the musician growled, stomping the ground. "You have 3 seconds to tell me the real reason you wanted guitar lessons before I turn around, and walk out of this room!"

Luna stumbled her own words as she tried to come up with an answer, quickly running out of time in response. With that done, Sam wordlessly went to leave the room, giving Luna the inspiration to blurt out:

"I wanted to get to know you better!"

Sam stopped right where she was, and allowed Luna to continue.

"Listen, we've been classmates for some time now, but I've never been able to hang out with you personally. And you seem like a very interesting person, I just... I wanted to try and get to know you better, know the Sam that most people didn't get to see. I didn't mean to offend you or anything. I just-"

Suddenly, Sam begun singing:

"If I got locked away, and we lost it all today," then she hugged herself, apparently for comfort. "Tell me honestly, would you still love me the same?"

" _Is that a song reference?_ " Luna pondered, before Sam continued.

"If I showed you my flaws, if I couldn't be strong," Sam turned to Luna, and with a stern, yet saddened look, continued, "Tell me honestly..."

Finally, Luna returned to reality just in time to finish the song:

"Would you still love me the same?"

The room was filled with silence as everybody waited for the musician to continue her story, looking at her with sympathy in the meantime. The odd ones out were Lori and Leni, who were getting worried at the idea that this may've not been the best way to start.

"And then, she told me she was actually asking me, and..." Luna sighed and looked at the ground. "I couldn't think of an answer, so I remained silent. Sam left afterwards."

"Well, that was a downer," Lynn said mere seconds later. "Okay Lucy, it's your turn. Whatever story you got, it has to be happier than Luna's."

"That's kinda weird, since I'm into dark stuff and that," the goth twiddled her fingers for a bit, then got an idea. "But my story is happier than Luna's, but it's still kinda dark. And it all started shortly after Polly and Tabby's music show finished..."

 _Lucy's flashback..._

An overly cheerful Haiku jumped up and down while hugging a surprised Lucy as tightly as she could. Tabby and Polly were resting nearby, watching the sight with amused looks. The club was currently empty, saved for Maggie and a couple more patrons who probably didn't care about what was currently going on.

"O-Okay, Haiku, you can stop now," Lucy told her excited friend, before noticing Polly and Tabby. "Seriously, please stop now, you're getting us unwanted attention."

Haiku stopped jumping and caught her breath as she gently put her gothic friend on the ground. With that done, she dusted herself as she explained:

"I'm sorry for my emotional outburst, Lucy, but I'm just so happy! In any other situation, Polly would've probably arrived just barely in time before the patrons left, but she arrived her way earlier than I expected, and it's all somehow thanks to your brother and his friend! She finally managed to get here without nearly giving me a heart attack, for crying out loud! That's just amazing!"

The poet sighed and clasped her hands. "I really wish he had stayed for a little bit longer. I really wanted to thank him for his unexpected help."

Then the pair heard somebody whistle, and Haiku turned to see Tabby and Polly waving at her to come with them.

"Sorry, Lucy, but I have to go deal with something now," Haiku told her friend as she walked to the pair. "We'll talk later, okay?"

Lucy just said "yes" with a calm tone, then waved goodbye as she herself left the club moments afterwards.

 _Back at the present..._

"Huh, now that I said it out loud, that story wasn't as sad as I thought it would be," Lucy shrugged.

"I guess It's up to me to bring back the downers, huh?" Luan guessed, chuckling a little before continuing. "Shortly after the fiasco with Maggie, I met her again, alone, at the back of the clown school..."

 _Luan's flashback..._

"I'm sorry."

The joker leaned against a wall with a shocked expression, surprised at what the emo had told her. Not only that, but as Maggie looked away and rubbed her shoulder, Luan could tell that she was legitimately feeling sorry for what happened.

"I didn't mean to burst out so badly at the stage. I was feeling so... annoyed, and angry, and I just wanted you to finally get that I don't want anything to do with you anymore. So you could stop dragging me into this stuff, all just to bring a smile you yourself took away years ago."

With all that said, Luan sighed in relief and said, "So, what you said over there-"

"I'm not taking back what I said there," Maggie clarified, sending chills down Luan's spine. "Specially something I may have or may not have said too: Jesters make people laugh with their jokes, but clowns make people laugh with their existence. And if you stay in this school, then the only thing you'll learn..."

 _Back at the present..._

Luan shed a single tear as she finished, "Is how to make people laugh at you, and not with you."

"And to end the quadrology or whatever that word means, I had a little discussion with Margo shortly after my big game," Lynn frowned. "However, some of her words caught my attention."

 _Lynn's flashback..._

The tomboy and Margo walked across the long hallways of the stadium, heading to the exit to go back to heir homes. And while Lynn looked up in the sky, seemingly lost in thought, Margo looked at the ground, with a stern frown as she spoke:

"And that's why I couldn't help but correct your statement about this game being a team victory."

Lynn raised an eyebrow and turned to Margo. "I still don't see the need to correct me."

Margo smirked. "Of course you wouldn't understand. You weren't trained to think like that. You were trained to be a one-woman army, a blind little puppet of the coach to bring the team an easy victory, all on your own."

Lynn stopped right on her tracks and looked at Margo with an annoyed look. "What are you trying to say, Margo?"

The girl stopped in that moment and chuckled, before explaining herself:

"I'm trying to say, that you had to train day and night, just to get close to a chance to living up to your teammates expectations."

Margo looked at her arm and grabbed it.

"I'm trying to say, that you had to train so hard, your bones broke into pieces, and that you had to keep the pain within you."

The girl formed a fist, while Lynn looked at her surroundings, actually looking scared for once.

"I'm trying to say, that once your bones healed, your intense training broke them again, and you did this again and again, until they were at their best condition, until you could no longer feel the pain."

"M-Margo-"

"But most importantly..."

Lynn flinched, and Margo turned around, beaming a wide, yet somehow uncomfortable smile.

"I understand how that feels."

 _Present time..._

"That girl worries me sometimes," Lynn shook her head, then immediately turned her sight to her eldest sisters. "Okay, Lori and Leni, we told you how our days went, now tell us whatever you needed to tell us."

"Aw geez," Lori whispered to Leni as all the eyes were down on the duo. "What do we tell them now? I don't think those stories helped them calm down at all!"

"Just tell them something basic," Leni whispered back. "That place, what happened to it, stuff like that, but you gotta tell them something."

Seeing she had no other choice, Lori took a deep breath, and promptly started:

"The world that we live in... isn't the first."

Judging by her sisters' reactions, their interest was piqued. Though among the intrigued looks, Lincoln and Lisa couldn't help but tilt their heads, with the prodigy obviously doing it out of disbelief.

"Eons ago, there was another world. The prototype world, where everything came from," Lori continued, twiddling her fingers as she continued. "In that world, Lincoln and... some other people, ruled the humanoids that were the predecessors of the current people we call humans. These were known as the prototypes."

Lori and Leni sat down, with the latter rubbing the former's shoulder in comfort as her voice grew shaky:

"Everything literally was peaceful... until something happened. Something horrible. The original world was supposedly... corrupted. And Lincoln, seeing this, and knowing how badly things would go if he left it unchecked, destroyed the original reality and created a new one with his divine powers."

"Divine powers?" Lincoln repeated to himself. "Does that mean... I used to be a god? "

"Then, Lincoln repopulated the world, and among the new people, officially known as "neophilims", came us and all of the people we know and love," Lori finished. "And that's not it: For fear of a future confrontation with the source of corruption, Lincoln gave the neophilim several sets of powers."

Lynn, Ronnie, and some of the other sisters chirped up at the statement.

"Most of these powers were exclusive to a caste, though, being either Lola's caste, Lana's caste, and so on and so forth."

"We have castes based on us?" Lana asked, tilting her head to the right.

"I bet my caste is one of the highest in the hierarchy," Lola boasted, swaying her hair to the left.

"Actually, the castes are more like a wheel: They all work in unison, but none of them are higher or lower from one another," Lori quickly explained, before taking a deep breath and added, "And each caste has a particular birthmark associated with it..."

Leni reached for her back and took out a picture, depicting all the birthmarks and to which caste they belonged, just as Lori continued:

"A diamond for the Lola caste, a crescent moon for the Luna caste, a paw for the Lana caste, a square for the Lisa caste, a five-leaf flower for the Luan caste and a four-leaf flower for the Lily caste, a skull for the Lucy caste, a fist for the Lynn caste, a spiraling circle for the Leni caste, and a rectangle for the Lori caste."

Lori took a deep breath as Leni threw the picture away, seemingly hitting a cat in the process as the eldest Loud sister finished, "And... that's pretty much it. That's what we wanted to tell you, and I'll literally understand if it's too much to take in."

The looks Lori and Leni got from their other sisters did make it clear it was too much for them to take it in, but not in the way they thought: It seemed like it was too much for them to believe, as in they literally thought they were bluffing or something.

"Are you being serious, dudes?" Luna asked, raising an eyebrow. "You sure you're not joking?"

"You better not be, 'cause it's not that funny," Luan added, folding her arms.

"Or even believable," Lynn rolled her eyes. "You seriously expect us to believe what you're saying?"

"What we just told you is the truth," Leni replied, shaking her head. "The world we're living in, isn't the first one-"

"Okay, I'm going to stop you right there and, as always, act like I'm the only one with a brain in this family," Lisa stated as she got up and folded her arms. "It's one thing to have Darcy refuse to help me with the Royal Woodroid 5000, but its another thing entirely, for you to just up and tell us something so... ridiculous!"

"I believe it," Ronnie Anne nonchalantly confessed with a shrug. "I mean, how else can you explain everybody having such weird birthmarks? Specially those whose birthmarks look very similar, despite not looking like they're related."

"Looks like we're going to need to give them some actual proof of our claims," Leni remarked. "Let's go to the backyard, there's more space there."

Lori thought about it, then nodded before snapping her fingers, prompting the siblings to follow her and Leni to the backyard, leaving the pets behind. As for Bun-Bun and Lily? Lincoln carried him in his arms as he followed his siblings, with the bunny plush toy looking at the boy with slight worry, while the baby was held by Luna.

 _Once at the backyard..._

Lori got ready to speak, when her forehead birthmark suddenly started... ringing? And glowing. So the young woman gestured her siblings to wait for her, and she pressed it as Leni tried to gesture her to stop.

Moments after she did this, Lori's birthmark projected a holographic screen, with Bobby being the one calling her. She just rolled her eyes and answered the call by pressing the screen with her finger. All while everybody else stood agape, utterly shocked at what they were seeing.

"What do you need, Bobby?" Lori asked with an exhausted tone. "I'm in the middle of trying to do something very stressing-"

"And I was wondering if you have seen Nie Nie anywhere?" Bobby asked, taking a look at Lori's surroundings with worry. "She, mom, and I just came back from our Casagrande cousins' apartment, and she's already gone missing-!"

"Relax, Boo Boo Bear, Ronnie Anne's with us," Lori rubbed her forehead, being careful not to touch her birthmark. "And before you ask, she's acting on her best behavior. Look, when we're done explaining what we need to tell our siblings, we'll send her back to you right away, got it?"

The boy took a deep breath. "G-Got it. Thanks babe."

"Good, see ya."

Lori snapped her fingers and her birthmark stopped glowing and projecting the screen. Mere seconds after she turned to see Leni's worried look, and then everybody else's stunned expressions, the young woman clasped her hands and sighed:

"I assume you want to literally know what just happened?"

"How did you do that?!" Clyde exclaimed in awe.

"That's so cool!" Ronnie stated. "Can I do that too?"

"Hold your horses, or however the phrase goes!" Lisa shouted, catching everybody's attention. "I can take Darcy refusing to help me with my project, I can take you revealing that there was another dimension that was destroyed to make this one, I can even take our birthmarks meaning we all belonged to some form of caste system, but I'm not going to take you using some sort of witchcraft to give your claims weight!"

The prodigy continued as she walked towards the tree. "I'm going to go to my underground laboratory, at least things will make sense in that place!"

The tree's trunk opened to reveal an elevator, and Lisa entered it and went down, throwing a pair of peace signs up in the air as it left. Almost nobody but the twins reacted:

"Are you sure she didn't learn anything from you?" Lana whispered to her twin.

Lola, rather than be angry at the implication, scratched her chin as she tried to remember. "I think I may've allowed her to study one of my tea parties when I was feeling particularly upset."

Lana shook her head. "That explains so much."

"Okay, everybody literally calm down!" Lori shouted, successfully getting everybody to shut up and pay attention to her. "First of all, what I just did was project a hologram from my birthmark. This is something that all of you should technically be able to do-"

"Ohoho, I just got to try that, then!" Ronnie chirped, with eyes immediately focusing on her as she revealed her birthmark on her left cheek, surrounded by her freckles.

Just like Lori, her birthmark was a rectangle with three segments: The first segment was red, the second segment was pink, and the third segment, of course, was orange.

"While I find your enthusiasm very welcomed, Ronnie, I'm afraid it's not literally that easy," Lori explained as the tomboy's birthmark started glowing. "To channel the powers of your castes, you need to be able to figure out what you need to channel, and when to channel it, which requires a lengthy training session-"

A holographic screen was projected from Ronnie's birthmark, prompting the girl to chirp, "I did it!"

The sight left Lori speechless. "What?!"

On the other side of the screen was Bobby, who flinched as he asked, "Ronalda?! Is that you?!"

"Yup, it's me!" Ronnie chirped before moving the screen to show Lori looking dumbfounded in the background. "I saw how you and Lori spoke through that hologram screen of hers, so I decided to try it out and I did it!"

"I can see that," Bobby nervously smiled. "Good for you, Ronnie. Please come back home when you've finished your business at the Loud house, alright?"

"Yeah, I'll totally come back when that happens," Ronnie replied, then turned off the hologram screen before rolling her eyes. "Geez, that Bobby, ever since mom told us we were going back to Royal Woods, he's been worried sick about me. It's almost as if he was worried something bad would happen to me or something."

"Well, knowing your reputation," Clyde looked away as he adjusted his glasses. "You probably made a few enemies that would want to get even with you once you came back."

Ronnie patted Clyde's back hard enough to make his glasses off. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Okay, we're getting way too sidetracked right now!" Lincoln exclaimed, getting everyone's attention. "Yes, we just saw Lori do something cool, which Ronnie could do as well, so it's just a fair assumption that everybody else has cool powers. I'm pretty sure that whatever powers we have, Lori and Leni will show them to us soon, right?"

Leni shrugged. "Like, for the most part."

"You, Lily, Ronnie, and Clyde are going to stay at the sidelines and watch the others train," Lori explained, instantly bringing Ronnie and Clyde's mood. "You can train with me, Leni, and-"

Lori hesitated, then shook her head. "I mean, just Leni and me, when they're done, but for now, just sit and relax."

Lincoln and Clyde nodded, while Lily frowned and Ronnie threw her arms up in exasperation shortly before the trio sat on the grass, with Luna handing Lily to Clyde soon afterwards. And as Lori got ready to show another cool power of hers, Ronnie couldn't help but look at the boys and what they were holding with curiosity, particularly the bunny plush toy.

"Where did you get that bunny toy, Lame-O?" Ronnie asked, before putting up a sneaky smile. "Does it belong to you?"

"Well, yeah, he does. His name's Bun-Bun, and in any other situation, I would've tried to keep him hidden from anybody," Lincoln hugged the plush bunny. "But I've been able to overcome my insecurity regarding him since you left. He means a lot to me."

"Oh, that..." Ronnie paused and looked at the ground. "Good to know."

The trio promptly turned back to see Lori project several holograms from her birthmark, all shaped like one of the sisters: Holo-Luan, Holo-Lynn, and so on. The only ones without a hologram were Lincoln, Lori, Leni, Lisa, and Lily.

"Once we tell you what your powers are, you'll face off against these holographic versions of you," Lori explained as the other sisters watched their hologram counterparts with wonder. "They won't fully die until I decide to turn them off manually, or until I'm knocked out, so-"

"Yeah, Lori, we got it," Lynn said, folding her arms and rolling her eyes. "We practice our powers on our counterparts, then we beat you up to get rid of the holograms."

And as the sisters laughed and Lori tried to explain herself better, a certain someone watched from the skies. As in, she was actually flying high in the air, watching the event happening from below. This certain someone was someone who Lori had some previous history together, Carol Pingrey.

"So, they're finally doing it," Carol remarked before taking out a phone and calling someone, "Carol to Champion HQ, respond Champion HQ."

After a couple seconds, a bored teenage girl voice replied, "Champion HQ here, what is it, Carol?"

The blonde turned to look back at the scene, and narrowed her eyes as she finished:

"The Louds are discovering their powers."

- **Next Chapter Preview** -

"Hey everybody, Ronnie Anne here!"

Scenes of Lucy, Lynn, and Lana testing out their powers were shown as Ronnie spoke:

"Just as I thought we'd do something fun, we're relegated to the sidelines."

The next scene was shown of Lori holding Lynn by the neck of her shirt, while the jock just smirked.

"Phone-O can be such a buzzkill at times."

The next scene showed Lisa on some underground location, speaking to someone on the phone. The scene after that showed Carol approaching a large building in some sort of... alternate dimension place? There were portals, anyway.

"Still, at least there's something to keep my mind off things."

Next scene showed Lincoln, Clyde, and Ronnie inside the house. More specifically, Clyde watched Lincoln from the kitchen, where Ronnie spoke to him just as the she narrated:

"Like, is Lame-O okay?"

Clyde's shown speaking, with Ronnie Anne fighting tears before the boy stopped and seemingly apologized.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

To bring up the mood, the next scene showed Luna forming some sort of pink-lavender-blue guitar, then boasting about something to her holographic counterpart.

"Let's Train! Time to Discover Our Superpowers!"

The penultimate scene showed Carol slowly turning to look at someone, with a smug smile.

"Don't miss it!"

The final scene is of Lori and Leni being sent flying by some mysterious object, while the sisters turn to look at the skies, with Lola snapping at it soon afterwards.


	3. Training Time

**Hello everybody! After one weekend without uploads, CoR: DR is back, and this time with weekly updates on Sundays! Assuming I can keep up with that, that is, but let's focus on the positive for now! Like the reviews:**

 **1) MCR29: I'm glad you're happy about the return of this fic, and that's an interesting bit you got there.**

 **2) Finnjr63: It totally will, bud!**

 **3) animehero1000: Yeah, they've had some bad days. Don't worry, though, they're gonna have worse days eventually! XD**

 **4) ChernoMan: Yeah, figured there was no reason to keep it secret for long AGAIN, so instead it was told from the beginning.**

 **5) Omega Ultra: First, I'm not a native English speaker. Two, the pacing was already a problem in the original fic, and I'm trying to fix that as best as I can. Just be patient, please.**

 **6) Nobody245: Hope and I have tried out something to fix it, don't worry.**

 **7) Observant Guest: Yeah, the pets... they will play a role eventually, alright.**

 **8) MasterCaster: Interesting.**

 **9) Guest: Well, this will hopefully be better than the last, hehe.**

 **10) Yeah, subverting cliches is good once in a while. And again, gonna try and fix that problem.**

 **Anyway, onto the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 3: Let's Train! Time to Discover Our Superpowers!**

* * *

Back from where we left off, Lori, Leni, Lily, Clyde, Ronnie, and Lincoln stood at the sidelines while Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lucy, Lola, and Lana were getting ready to kick their hologram counterparts' butts to test their powers, at the same time, mind you.

"Okay, so, what exactly are our powers, Lori?" Lynn asked, shooting a smug look at her oldest sister. "Betting my caste is super strength, but since your the all-knowing sister and stuff-"

"Actually, my caste is the one with super strength," Leni casually pointed out, catching the jock's attention. "Lynn, your caste's power is super speed, which you can totes access by focusing your energy on your birthmark. It's a way to activate our powers, you see-"

The athlete immediately chirped up. "Super speed?!"

"Now you can run away from failure even faster!" Ronnie Anne scoffed from the sidelines, chuckling as she got an angry look from the athlete.

"You know, Lynn? That sounds like the perfect use for super speed in your case," Lola added, also earning a glare from Lynn as she swayed her hair to the left. "Unlike moi, who always faces up against the competition even in the chance of defeat. Granted, I always win, but that's not important."

"Then stop bringing it up!" Ronnie casually shouted.

And it was in that moment that Lincoln decided to interrupt, "Ronnie Anne, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to spice things up." the tomboy shrugged with a little smile. "No one finds training fun in the comics. All talk and no act-"

"You may want to stop that, though," Lincoln interrupted again, basically ticking off the tomboy. "I've read enough comics to know that superheroes train better, without any spontaneous commentary."

"Yeah. Besides if you keep it up, you're going to regret it," Clyde added, with Lily nodding in blind agreement as he continued. "It's one thing to taunt a bunch of elementary school kids, but doing that to people with untrained superpowers? Sounds like an accident waiting to happen."

"Okay, stop getting sidetracked!" Lori called, getting everybody's attention. "We got a schedule to follow, so who will test their powers against their hologram counterpart first?"

"I'll do it!" Lynn stated, before getting ready to sprint just as her birthmark started to glow. "I've always wanted to try bum rushing someone at lighting speed!"

"I bet she'll lose her footing in an instant," Ronnie casually stated.

"I bet the resulting friction will set her on fire," Clyde nonchalantly added.

And before Lincoln could say anything, Lynn ran off at such high speeds she left after-images. However, once she leaped and tried to butterfly kick her holographic doppelganger, she got a grim reminder: the hologram wasn't corporeal, so she just phased through her and crashed into the fence, and down to the floor, feeling her skin get warmer for a moment in the process. Probably because of friction, the jock thought.

"Okay, Lynn, good work for your first try, but you'll have to work on your inertia and braking capabilities," Lori stated before turning to the remaining sisters. "Okay, Luan, you're up."

After taking a couple seconds to acknowledge her named was called, Luan slowly started moving towards Leni with a face mixed with doubt and anxiety. Picking up on this Leni started moving towards Luan.

"What's wrong, Luan. Like, are you still worried about Maggie?"

"No Leni, that's not what I'm thinking about right now," said Luan as she looked at her fashionista sister. "I know I went out here with everyone, but I still can't believe what Lori said inside. Original reality? Lincoln being a god? super powers? sounds like something from one of Lincoln's games or those movies that he likes to watch."

"I know it sounds totes crazy, but look at what Lynn can do." said Leni as she pointed to Lynn practicing with her super speed. "That has to make you believe what Lori told you guys is the truth. Now how about we like show you what kind of powers you have."

Leni's beaming face and what she just said made it hard for Luan to say no, so she took a deep breath and asked "Okay what are my powers?"

"Alright, you may, like, find this to be a no-brainer, but you have the power to weaponize puns: If you say a particular pun with a particular context, you'll be able to take that context and use it as a weapon."

Though confused at the explanation for a moment, Luan soon got an idea and quipped while her birthmark glew:

" _Water_ you talking about?"

The comedian raised her arms, and a pair of water balls materialized above them. She then controlled them and threw both water balls at her holographic counterpart, who spazzed for a moment before blowing up. Then Luan put a hand on her hip and joked, while her birthmark was still glowing:

"Huh, looks like she was quite _explosive_ about her loss."

A lit bomb materialized on Luan's lifted arm, and so she freaked out and threw it at Leni, who immediately slapped it into the sky hard enough to send it... into Carol herself, who remained stoic as the bomb blew up, covering her in a soot.

"Okay, you can clearly literally handle this by yourself, but we're going to have to work on both your ability to say puns, and activating and deactivating your powers manually," Lori said, only to add once she thought about it more, "Mostly your puns, though."

And as the training continued with Lucy being the next trainee, the smoke bomb covering Carol dissipated, showing the blonde had a disappointed look on her face.

"So, your teaching methods haven't changed, huh, Lori and Leni?" she said as she watched Lucy generate a pair of light arms from her back, which she used to punch her hologram counterpart into oblivion. "Those lessons can't work for everyone."

Carol smirked. "And I know just how to prove it."

The teenager put two fingers on her forehead and somehow teleported out of the... skies, just as Lola caused a blinding flash of light down below. And naturally, everybody had their eyes closed when that was done... except for the hologram, who blew up afterwards. And as Lola decided to do a little victor dance, she narrowly dodged Luan's fight with her own hologram, prompting a complaint from the diva:

"Hey, watch it!"

Then she turned to face Luna, who was standing next to Lori and Leni. "Luna, are you sure we can't take these fights elsewhere?!"

"Sorry, Love, but Lori and Leni said we have to train in the backyard," the rocker answered, shaking her head. "For now, we'll just have to deal with it."

Lola groaned and muttered "fine" as her hologram counterpart materialized again, this time heading off to fight her right away.

 _Meanwhile, with Carol..._

The young woman reached her destination: The entrance to a large building, with an "L" symbol standing above it, with stylized images of a white haired boy hanging at the sides in tapestry.

But the thing that caught Carol's attention, was the fact that there wasn't anybody guarding the door. This greatly struck a nerve to the girl, who kicked the doors open and stomped her way inside, before snapping her fingers and somehow closing the doors in an instant.

As she walked around, another thing caught her attention: The lack of anybody else in the building. It almost seemed deserted, if it weren't for the choir that she could hear in the background.

"I'm assuming most of these "followers" are busy with choir practice or in their rooms," Carol remarked, scanning her surroundings. "Whatever, that's none of my business, I need to find the door that'll lead to HQ."

Carol continued to walk around, and eventually, she managed to find the door she was looking for: A large door, depicting six symbols; A paw, a diamond, a crescent moon, a five-leaf flower, a fist, and a skull, and inside each of these symbols was a spades symbol, colored white.

Carol smiled and went through the door, and found herself going up a long staircase that lead her to a large castle, with the same symbols as the door. As for what was on the background, nothing too important, just several colored portals hanging around in the sky.

Once she reached the building, the lady went inside and found herself in the living room, where she saw six masked beings: a blue one, a pink one, a purple one, a yellow one, a red one, and a grey one, all relaxing at a table.

Or rather, they were discussing something there.

"We need to send more of the breaker units to the Swag dimension!" the red masked being snapped. "Just because that dimension has a purple seal doesn't mean it can't be broken by any of the breakers!"

"Except that's exactly what it means," the purple masked being retorted. "The color of the seal designates the caste that can break. If the seals could be broken by anybody, we would've gotten a whole lot more done by now. And that's clearly not the case. Not to mention, most of my breaker units, which could break the dang seal, are busy elsewhere."

"Still, we need to break that seal somehow, that's literally our only job here," the grey masked being remarked, scratching their chin. "There must be something we can do that doesn't need Purple's breaker units."

Carol whistled, and caught the attention of the masked beings.

"Look who we got here, if it isn't Carol," the pink masked being scoffed, earning a glare from the teenager. "What brings you to HQ? Need to get a pep talk from the dear mothers again?"

Carol blushed with rage, and snapped, "I'm just here to show you something related to the Louds, that's all!"

"You do realize you're supposed to bother the Sister-Keepers or Brother-Keepers when it comes to stuff related to the Louds, right?" the yellow masked being asked. "What do you have to show us that you can't show the keepers?"

" _Damn, I knew I was forgetting something! Eh, I'll deal with that later._ " Carol thought, then took a deep breath. "It's a status update on the Louds, but it'll be better if I show you, rather than tell you about it."

Carol slightly unbuttoned her top, until her cleavage was exposed, also exposing her birthmark. However, this birthmark looked rather... peculiar.

The first segment was a rectangle, which then became rounded in the middle, allowing the second segment-a spiraling circle-to spiral towards the final segment, a spades symbol.

The first segment was turquoise, the second segment was light blue, and the third segment, wasn't orange, but cyan.

But back to the important stuff, Carol focused her energy on her birthmark, and projected a rectangular screen from it, which showed the Loud sisters still training.

 _Speaking of Loud training..._

Lana cracked her knuckles before swinging her left arm up, somehow sending a wave of earth at her hologram counterpart, who briefly blew up before reforming and going to face off against her immediately.

"Okay, Lana now knows how to use her caste's terrakinesis, to an extent anyway," Lori recapped before turning to Luna and putting a hand on her shoulder. "That means the only one left to train their abilities is you, Luna."

"Alright then," Luna nodded and went to face off against her holo-counterpart, making sure to dodge the other hologram vs original fights. "Hey, dudes, what are my caste's abilities anyway?"

Leni got ready to speak, but Lori quickly covered her mouth with her hand and whispered to her, "Luna's abilities require her voice, and seeing how she sounds kinda hoarse, I'm afraid she may get hurt. At least our other sisters have a way to avoid it, but I can't see Luna using her abilities first time and not losing her voice for the rest of the day."

Then, she got an idea. "How about you tell her about her _other_ abilities?"

"But those other abilities are not exclusive to her caste," Leni pointed out telepathically. "What if she starts getting suspicious about-"

"Hey, dudes!" Luna called, immediately catching the duo's attention. "I know you have a lot of abilities to remember, but could you please hurry up a little? We don't have all day."

Lori and Leni exchanged looks, a nod, then Lori released Leni's mouth and the fashionista explained:

"Luna, your caste has the ability to channel their energy into weapons. You just have to focus your energy on a weapon you want to make, and the rest should be done by your mind."

Though she was slightly confused by the explanation, Luna promptly nodded, closed her eyes and focused her energy on her birthmark, which began glowing. Shortly afterwards, she opened her palm, and part of her energy surged through it and came out before materializing itself into a pink-lavender-blue guitar axe.

And as Ronnie, Lincoln, Clyde, and Lily all looked in awe at the energy guitar, Luna opened her eyes, and it only took one look at the object to bring a smile to her face.

"Wow, sweet!" Luna then turned to her hologram copycat and proclaimed. "Okay, holo-me, I'm ready to cut you down, look sharp!"

The rock star dashed to her counterpart, and with one swift swing of her energy guitar, Holo-Luna was split in two, exploding shortly afterwards. Then she reassembled herself, and dashed towards Luna with a holographic energy guitar of her own. Not to worry though, the musician managed to block the attack, and so, the fight continued.

A fight so loud, it apparently could be heard underground.

 _Underneath the Loud house, Lisa's Laboratory..._

The young prodigy put the finishing touches to a small model of her Royal Woodroid 5000 idea, with what could be presumed to be the full version resting behind her, covered by a giant white sheet. However, putting said finishing touches became harder than she thought thanks to the sound of the fights above her, which did nothing but hinder her concentration.

Nevertheless, she managed to finish the robot model... and just in time for it to bring a very unpleasant memory to her mind.

 _Lisa's flashback..._

The scientist was showcasing a small model of her "Royal Woodroid 5000" project to Darcy, who just looked at the little robot with confusion.

"And that's exactly why I need your help in finishing this thing!" Lisa said before extending her hand towards Darcy. "So, what do you say?"

The toddler glanced between the robot, then Lisa's hand, and gently lowered the hand as she answered:

"I'm sorry, Lisa, but I'm not into robots. And besides, I couldn't even understand half of what you told me."

The scientist's smile remained, but her eyes spoke for themselves. "W-What are you saying?"

Darcy sighed, "I'm not going to help you."

Lisa's smile slowly turned into a furious glare, to the point that she looked like she was about to blow up. And she did, with one simple question:

"What!?"

 _Back in the present..._

What came afterwards wasn't something the prodigy wouldn't like to relive: Basically her biggest hissy fit since... actually, possibly her first truly immature hissy fit in general. It was a thought so unpleasant, it left a bad taste in the prodigy's mouth.

So much so, in fact, she simply knew she had to apologized. So she went to the nearest phone in her lab, and called to Darcy's house number.

It wasn't long before a familiar voice answered:

"Hello?"

"Hello, Mrs. Homandollar," Lisa greeted with a calm tone of voice. "Sorry if I got your surname wrong. Anyway, is Darcy home?"

"Sure, I'll get her here in a moment."

Lisa waited for some moments, and yet again, it wasn't long before she heard a familiar voice:

"Lisa?"

"G-Greetings, Darcy," Lisa nervously greeted, scratching the back of her head as she continued. "Listen, I... wanted to apologize for my earlier behavior, back at your house. I didn't mean to overreact like that."

"I don't know what you mean by "behavior" or "overreacting", but you were being mean and scary back then," Darcy replied, sounding slightly upset. "You even left before I could ask you why this giant toy robot you showed was so important to you."

The prodigy flinched right in that moment, but quickly got an idea when she turned to look at her incomplete Royal Woodroid 5000 model.

"W-Well, why should I tell you, when I can just show you?" Lisa replied. "If you wouldn't mind, could you, maybe, come to my house next weekend? I got something I'd like to show you."

This prompted Darcy to ask an innocent question, "Can I get mad and scary like you did at my house if I don't like it?"

The scientist couldn't help but feel embarrassed by that fact, specially when she compared herself to Darcy. Simply put, she was a prodigy who was used to acting in a stoic manner, and had "nerves of steel", so to speak, so she theoretically shouldn't have taken Darcy's refusal to work with her as badly as she did, valued friend or not. It didn't seem odd for Darcy to throw a hissy fit, but if Lisa was in the same situation, she probably would've gotten quite a few odd looks from her peers.

"Sure, you can do that," Lisa answered, forcing a smile. "But I need you to come, please."

A couple seconds of silence passed... and then Darcy answered:

"Sure."

The prodigy chirped up and answered "Thanks, Darcy, you won't regret it!" before hanging the phone. This was followed by the Royal Woodroid 5000 model spontaneously falling apart, making the prodigy rub her forehead in annoyance.

"I should better get working on a more stable model," Lisa muttered. "And fast."

 _Meanwhile, above Lisa's lab..._

The quartet remained sit down and watched the girls' continued struggle against their holographic counterparts. And though they weren't having that much trouble with their counterparts, the fact they didn't have a big arsenal of powers on their hands, plus Lori having complete control over the holograms' strength-or so the girls thought anyway-it almost felt like they would be utterly helpless in a real battle.

Not that this kept Lincoln from trying to stay positive:

"Keep it up, girls, you're doing really good!"

"You'll beat your counterparts in no time, and with style to boot!" Clyde added.

Lily giggled and clapped her hands, and then Ronnie Anne said, just as the sisters decided to take a break from fighting the holograms:

"Are you guys seriously fine with this?"

The boys, baby, and bunny plush toy turned to the tomboy as she added:

"Just staying at the sidelines, watching everybody else fight? Are you really okay with that?"

"I don't see the problem of just staying here for now, Ronnie Anne," Lincoln shook his head. "Lori and Leni did say they would train us after they were done training... most of our other sisters."

"Yeah, Ronnie, you just gotta be patient," Clyde said, with Lily nodding in agreement. "There's no point in rushing anything."

"I'm not questioning whether Lori and Leni are going to train us or not, Phone-O should know by now that I hate it when people lie to me," Ronnie sighed. "I asked if you guys are okay just sitting on the sidelines like this, waiting forever for our training to come. I mean, after what the others can do, don't you want to know what sort of powers we have too?"

"We're not like you, Ronnie Anne," Clyde bluntly stated. "We can actually wait."

"I can wait too!" the tomboy whined, folding her arms and looking away as she added, "I'm just finding it hard to do because we're seeing all this exciting stuff!"

Suddenly, Lincoln got an idea. "How about we go inside and get something to eat? We don't have to stay here, we can just wait inside until my sisters finish."

"Huh, that actually sounds like a good idea," Ronnie remarked. "I'm surprised it took you this long to come up with a plan like that, though, Lame-O."

"I'm not," Clyde patted Lincoln's back. "After all, even if he takes his time, he's the man with a plan, and I'm his best friend to the very end!"

Ronnie tilted her head to the right. "Then what am I?"

Clyde shrugged. "Uh... a bully who's unruly, I guess?"

With that said, Lincoln and Clyde got up and walked back inside, making sure that they continued to hold Bun-Bun and Lily as they walked into the house. As for Ronnie, she remained on the ground to process what was just said to her, until she frowned and somberly repeated:

"Bully?"

 _Meanwhile, back with Carol and the masked beings..._

The blonde young woman continued to show the training sessions for a little while before stopping channeling her energy, making her birthmark stop projecting the screen. And as she caught her breath-apparently projecting such a thing was pretty tiring for her-the masked being just remained sitting down, apparently unimpressed. That, or just having no reaction to the video.

"Okay, so, from what we could gather from the video, Lori and Leni finally to their siblings a part of the truth, and they're training them to use their powers," the pink masked being recapped, folding her arms and crossing her legs as she finished, "I still don't see what you need from us."

"Just because the Louds are learning to use their powers doesn't mean they're threats to us right now," the blue masked being added. "In fact, judging by what we saw, they still have a long way to go before they'll be anywhere near close to use their powers effectively."

"What I need help with, is actually put the Louds through a realistic battle simulation," Carol got up and turned to face the masked beings. "Lori's holograms stay still until they blow up, and even when they started moving, they didn't pull off any moves that the Louds couldn't easily counter or see coming. In a real battle, a single slip-up could cost the Louds dearly, but in Lori's training, there's no peril for them at all!"

"They're just training, there's nothing to worry about there," the red masked being pointed out as they folded their arms. "If you really want to teach them a lesson, or give them a harsh introduction to reality, then you can go do it yourself, we're too busy at the moment."

It was in that moment that a devious idea entered Carol's mind, bringing a wide, sinister smile to her face. She then turned around and folded her arms before she spoke:

"You're right, clearly, I can't count on you to help me deal with the Louds."

"Carol, it's not that you can't count on us," the yellow masked being interrupted. "It's just that, from the way you're talking about it, the situation doesn't sound like something you'd need our help with, you could probably do it on your own."

Carol chuckled. "Again, you're right: Compared to me, all of you are nothing more than bench warmers, people who just exist to cover space and nothing more. Or perhaps, you're more like couch potatoes?"

This statement caused the pink masked being to uncross her legs and stand up, hissing, "What did you call us?"

"I called you bench warmers, and then couch potatoes, both of which is what you really are," Carol shrugged and shook her head. "After all, what else do you call a group of people who spend most of their time, which isn't spent barking orders, sitting on their butts and watching their "underlings" do their work of them? At least I go out on occasion, but you guys?"

"We go out on occasion too, during breaker missions!" the pink masked being snapped, stomping the ground. "We both know that our jobs are different: Your job is to watch over the Louds and lead the breakers when we can't do it, and our job is to act as the progenitors' second in-command, and lead the breaker units into the sealed dimensions!"

Carol slowly turned to face the masked beings, and asked, with a smug smile, "How does that change the fact you spend most of your time wasting it in this building, until your minions report to you?"

And though the pink masked being almost attacked Carol right then and there, she was stopped by the blue masked being, who said, "Carol does have a point: It's been a couple of days since we got the last report from our minions. Maybe we could pay the Louds a visit?"

And then the red masked being added, "Besides, one of the progenitors' goals is to make sure the Louds don't get too cocky. And we all know how overconfident people can get after they first find out they have superpowers."

"They did seem excited to use their powers for the first time in the video," the grey masked being added suddenly. "In order for them to not let it get over their heads, however, they need to see they still have a lot to learn, and the best way to do that is for us to show them what those powers in the hand of experienced people can do."

Finally seeing reason within their comrades words, the pink masked being looked at the ground, thought about it, then turned back to Carol and stated:

"We're going to go teach the Louds a lesson, but you're coming too!"

"But of course," Carol turned back to the beings. "Somebody has to keep Lori and Leni busy, otherwise, the fight will be over in an instant! So-"

Just then, the grey masked being blurted, "However..."

"What is it?" the yellow masked being asked.

"What if the progenitors find out about this little endeavor of ours?" everyone else flinched at the question. "After all, they prefer it when we do things they order us to do, rather than things we decided to do on our own."

"B-But, the progenitors want the Louds to keep a healthy ego, which is what we'll end up doing!" Carol argued. "Why would they be upset about that?"

"Carol, you have to remember that the progenitors... have a special way of thinking," the purple masked being finally spoke as she stood up and walked towards the blonde. "A train of thought that even us, their closest followers, can't even come close to comprehending. What we see as being something they'd enjoy, could be seen by them as something they'd hate, and so on and so forth."

Carol narrowed her eyes as the being continued, "We need to end the fight quickly, otherwise, the progenitors may step in to attack the Louds themselves. They may hold back, but still... we want the Louds humbled, not traumatized."

The blonde took a deep breath and nodded, "You're right, we'll strike the Louds, and make sure to end the fight quickly so as to not get the attention of the progenitors. Until then, we can only wait; if we go too soon, Lori and Leni may be able to work together with their sisters to kick our butts."

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure your butt has a reservation for them alone, right?" the pink masked being chuckled.

Carol groaned in fury, but managed to calm down herself quickly enough to join the rest of the masked beings as they waited for the right time to strike.

 _Back with the main trio..._

Lincoln sat on the couch, rubbing Lily's hair and making sure she didn't try to eat Bun-Bun as the pets watched them nearby. But they weren't the only ones watching, for Clyde and Ronnie Anne could see the scene from the kitchen, where they were having lunch. More specifically: Ronnie somberly had lunch, while Clyde looked at Lincoln with a worried look.

Which, no doubt, caught Ronnie's attention.

"Nerd-O, is there something wrong?" Ronnie asked, bringing the boy back to reality. "I mean, I wouldn't blame you if there was something on your mind, but the fact you haven't even touched your food worries me a little."

"Sorry, Ronnie, I just got lost in thought," Clyde ate a bit before adding, "And it has to do with Lincoln, doesn't he seem to be taking everything that's been told to us... a little too well?"

"Now that you mention it, I don't think Lame-O's asked any questions about anything that Phone-O and Ditz-O said," Ronnie scratched her chin. "Do you think he's in denial or something?"

"Either that, or he's coping by ignoring it," Clyde turned back to Lincoln. "I can't think of any other possible explanation."

Ronnie then nonchalantly suggested, "Try."

One quick, unamused glance later, Ronnie decided to remain quiet for a bit, and take a deep breath before asking:

"Clyde, can you be honest with me?"

Ronnie hesitated as the guy turned to look at her with wonder, and a bit of confusion.

"How many people... still see me as a bully, even after all the time that's been since I left?" the tomboy asked, rubbing her arm. "I want to know truth, please."

The geek put on a blunt look and took a deep breath before replying:

"I'm going to be honest with you, but it's going to hurt. In fact, it may be too much for you, because even if you say you're ready, your body language says otherwise. So there's a chance the truth may end up hurting you far worse than anything has done so far. So, if you're really sure you can handle the truth, I'll probably give you the benefit of doubt, but again-"

Suddenly, Ronnie snapped. "For Lame-O's sake, Nerd-O, tell me already!"

Flinching at the sudden display of aggression, Clyde adjusted his glasses and bluntly stated:

"Ever since you left, everybody remembered you as a bully. You acted like a bully since the start of the school year, you remained a bully for most of it, and the only people you even bothered to act decent to were your family and Lincoln, everybody else only ever got to see your "bully" side, and that's all they had to remember you when you left."

Ronnie's anger was slowly replaced with anger and shame, as the geek continued:

"And can you blame them? You just vanished without a trace, with only a few of us learning about it from Lincoln or Lori. And by the time you left, nobody knew about the real you, Ronnie Anne, they only knew about "Bully Anne" and her cruel bullying tactics. And because of them, not only did most people not miss you as well, but some even rejoiced about that fact because they thought they were finally safe from you."

Ronnie then covered her face and cried, "Nerd-O, please stop!"

Seeing the tomboy about to collapse, the dark-skinned boy complied, and rubbed her back in sympathy as he said, "I'm sorry if I was too harsh, but I did warn you beforehand that I was going to be very blunt. And the truth could hurt, that too.

"No wonder Bobby was so hesitant to come back here," Ronnie sighed as she uncovered her face. "He probably thought my "reputation" would cause our family a lot of problems!"

"As bad as you may have been, I don't think it would be enough to drive your family out of the city," Clyde remarked, earning a look that basically told him the tomboy didn't want to be pitied. "But, truth be told, it might be hard for you to make some friends."

Ronnie rolled her eyes. "Right, cuz that wasn't hard enough already. Listen, Nerd-O, you seemed to be worried about Lame-O before, how about you go talk to him while I recover from... that harsh reminder of reality?"

"You know what, Ronnie Anne, that doesn't sound like a bad idea at all," Clyde got off his seat. "I'll go see him right now. And again, sorry for the harsh words."

"Don't worry about it, I've been through worse," Ronnie somberly replied.

And so, the dark-skinned geek walked to Lincoln's side and sat next to him, earning a surprising growl from the pets.

"Calm down, guys, it's just Clyde," Lincoln told the pets, who obliged. "So, Clyde, do you need something?"

Feeling a bit nervous, the geek took a deep breath and asked:

"Lincoln, we're best friends, right? We have a lot of trust in each other, right? 'Cause I need to ask you something, but I'm not sure if it may be too much for you..."

Lincoln, likewise, took a deep breath and answered:

"Clyde, you've been by my side through... most of my misadventures, and you've been my best friend since the very beginning. We trust each other and share everything. So if you have something to ask, go ahead."

And after a couple seconds in silence, the guy asked:

"How do you feel... about what Lori told us?"

 _Speaking of Lori..._

The young woman kept Lynn at bay with one hand before snapping her fingers on her remaining hand, causing the holograms to vanish from existence. With that done, most of the sisters took the chance to calm down and rest... except for Lynn, who continued to try and hit Lori.

"Hey, I already got rid of the holograms!" Lori snapped as she grabbed the jock by the neck of her shirt. "Why do you keep attacking me?!"

"Just to be sure!" Lynn smirked.

And just in that moment, both Lori and Leni could feel something was incoming. Or more accurately, someone, was coming.

So Leni promptly grabbed her athletic sister and put her on the ground, before gesturing her sisters to go into the house.

"Alright, everybody, we'll leave your training there for today. Now please go back inside the house while Lori and I deal with..." Leni walked closer to Lori and looked at the sky. "A certain uninvited guest."

Just as the sisters questioned what the heck Leni was talking about, the girl's belly button seemingly glew as she raised her arms, somehow covering herself and Lori inside a light brownish shield.

And just in time too, since not long afterwards, Carol came out of nowhere so fast, she seemed like a blur to the other sisters. Then, she kicked the sphere so hard, Lori and Leni were sent flying off into the horizon, with Carol chasing after them in hot pursuit.

"Dude, what just happened?!" Luna exclaimed in disbelief.

"Nothing compared to what'll happen to you."

The sisters turned to see the sky, where six colored portals suddenly materialized. From those portals came the masked being, each coming out of the portal that matched their own color, who levitated on the air as they took a look around their surroundings, before noticing the sisters.

"Greetings, Loud sisters," the pink masked being greeted as the portals closed themselves out of existence. "It's so good to see you in person."

"How do you know who we are?!" Lola snapped, stomping the ground.

"Um, hello, Lola? The Loud house? Home of the Loud family, one of the biggest families in Royal Woods?" Lana pointed out. "It would've been weirder if they didn't know who we are."

"Even so, who are you?!" Lola snapped at the masked beings. "And what the heck do you want?!"

Soon afterwards, the masked beings slowly flew down to the ground, and the instant they landed, the pink masked being stated:

"We're going to make you learn your place."

- **Next Chapter Preview** -

"Hey everybody, Clyde here!"

A crash happened at the main street of Royal Woods, followed by Carol, Lori, and Leni talking to each other as Clyde spoke.

"A lot of interesting stuff seems to be happening right now."

Then, Carol formed a pair of energy blades and dashed towards Lori and Leni.

"Somebody attacking Leni and Lori,"

Meanwhile, the sisters fought the masked beings... with mixed results.

"Some masked beings attacking the other sister,"

And finally, Clyde and Ronnie Anne went to try and get Lincoln's answer about his thoughts, only for him to run away. Which, of course, prompted them to chase him.

"But right now, one thing matters the most: Getting Lincoln to tell me and Ronnie Anne his thoughts!"

Back at the main street, Carol got on her knees, and then Lori and Leni flew back home, with Lori carrying an unconscious Carol.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Six pillars of light emerged from the ground, and six humanoid figures came down from the pillars of light as Clyde said the title:

"A Fight That's Impossible To Win?! The Progenitors' Divine Discipline!"

Ronnie Anne and Clyde exchanged angry looks as the tomboy seemed to be threatening the boy.

"Don't miss it!"

Finally, Lincoln left his hiding spot, getting Ronnie and Clyde's attention.


	4. Masked Confrontation

**Hello everybody, welcome back to CoR: DR! We're in the penultimate chapter of the "Introduction Arc", which, just to let you know already, will go on for one more chapter before we relax, set up, then go straight to the first arc: The Proto-Lola Arc. But first, let's respond to some reviews:**

 **1) Finnjr63: Thanks.**

 **2) Chernoman: And the fights starts now!**

 **3) Nobody245: For the first question, "Progenitors" can mean all of the protokind, but in the current context, its just the proto sisters. For the second question, It's complicated, but they're closer to their own family side than they were in the original draft.**

 **4) King Genocide: MORTAL KOMBAT!**

 **5) animehero1000: Let's just say the progenitors are a bit... mentally "out-there", so if Carol's plans go against theirs, they won't see it.**

 **6) Observant Guest: A bit of both, really. And yeah, the pets will play a bigger role... eventually...**

 **7) Hatoralo: The sisters are already kinda skeptical, might as well not try to give them too much information, alright?**

 **8) MCR29: It's okay, and if you think the last two chapters of this introduction arc will be epic, then you're in for a surprise later down the line.**

 **Now with that out of the way, onto the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 4: A Fight to Keep Our Egos in Check?! The Masked Beings Strike!**

* * *

Back from where we left off, Lori and Leni bounced off through the streets thanks to Carol's kick. Luckily, they were inside a shield at the moment, but this didn't stop them from bouncing all over the place until they crash-landed right in the middle of the main Street, where the shield dematerialized as Carol flew down and landed close to the crash site.

"Sorry for having to use a surprise strike right from the start," Carol stated as she cracked her knuckles and Lori and Leni got up. "But knowing just how outmatched I'd be in a normal fight, I have to take all the chances I can get."

"Carol, of all the times you could attack us, did you really have to do it now?!" Lori snapped as she dusted herself. "I mean, we just came out of training our sisters!"

"I know, I saw your training methods at the backyard," Carol folded her arms and shook her head. "And to be completely honest, you're doing everything wrong."

"What?!" Lori hissed.

"The methods you used to train me aren't going to be as effective with your sisters," Carol sighed. "You have to realize that sooner or later, otherwise, you'll make them even more defenseless than they would otherwise be. And that's not something the progenitors desire."

"W-We wanted to test out the method, like, before ruling it out!" Leni argued. "You know, to try and see if any of them would benefit from the training more than others. I mean, like, there has to be at least one sister that could benefit from it!"

"Even if that was the case, I could also see some of them becoming overconfident. Particularly Lynn, Luna, and definitely Lola." Carol pointed out, narrowing her eyes. "Having them practice with dummies that can't defend themselves could hurt them in the long run."

"We're aware of that risk!" Lori complained, folding her arms and tapping the floor with her foot. "Look, I know you're worried about our sisters and you don't exactly trust us with anything after... you know-"

"After you told me what's my true purpose in this inter-dimensional nonsense? After you basically acted like you despised me all this time, without ever apologizing for it?" Carol asked, before suddenly snapping, "After you basically broke my bones, again and again, using your stupid training methods, only to make me a viable tool for the progenitors' plan!?"

With a casual tone, Lori just answered, "Yeah, pretty much that."

All while Leni gestured for her not to say anything nearby. Naturally, Carol wasn't amused.

"Bottom line, I sent a couple friends to deal with the sisters," Carol raised her arms and formed a pair of energy blades from them. "And I'm going to make sure neither of you gets in the way!"

 _Back at the Loud house..._

Lincoln stood shaken on the ground, while Clyde looked at him with a stern expression, waiting for his answer.

"I... I'm not quite sure what you're asking, Clyde," Lincoln rubbed the back of his head and nervously looked away. "Could you be a bit more clear?"

"Lincoln, Lori just told everyone all kinds of bizarre stuff, like how they had super powers, how you might've been a god, the existence of another reality before this one, and whole bunch of other stuff!" Clyde explained, putting a hand on his best friend's shoulder. "And you haven't even asked anything about it yet!"

"That's mostly because Lori decided to train some of my sisters right away," Lincoln sighed. "I was going to ask some questions once the training was done, honest!"

Clyde, however, wasn't convinced. "Lincoln, I'm going to ask again, and I want you to give me an answer: How do you feel about what Lori told us?"

The pets begun to growl, or otherwise look intimidating to try and get the boy to shut up. But this didn't work as Lincoln refused to answer, and then Ronnie Anne walked into the scene.

"Yo, how's it going, Nerd-O?" Ronnie asked, catching the dark-skinned geek's attention. "I was wondering why you hadn't returned yet, Lame-O still hasn't told you anything?"

"No, and he refuses to answer me," Clyde shook his head. "Right now, I'm waiting for him to answer-"

"Nerd-O, if Lame-O's outright refusing to tell you the truth, and you know that's the case, then it should be obvious that Lame-O won't tell you anything on his own," Ronnie put a hand on Clyde's shoulder. "Either we leave him alone, which we can't do unless we know if he's alright or not, or we make him talk the hard way."

"Guys, I'm fine, honest," Lincoln replied.

Ronnie and Clyde, however, were not convinced, prompting Lincoln to up and run away upstairs. The duo chased after him, after dealing with a bit of aggression from the pets, which they simply ignored.

"After them!" Charles telepathically barked. "If they make him too stressed, who knows what'll happen!"

The pets nodded in unison and gave chase to Lincoln's pursuers.

 _Back at the backyard..._

The sisters stood still in their places, watching as the masked beings slowly floated down until they landed on the ground. Then, they turned to look at the sisters, and gestured them to face the beings.

Unsurprisingly, Lynn was the first to rush into action.

"Dude, wait!" Luna exclaimed.

"No time for that, Luna!" Lynn growled, focusing solely on the masked beings. "These guys want a fight, and that's what they'll get!"

Suddenly, the red masked being ran to Lynn, and in the moment Lynn realized what was going on, she barely managed to process the situation before the masked figure punched her right in the gut so hard, she was sent flying straight into the wall.

"If that's the sort of fight you're going to give us, then don't even bother," the red masked being scoffed. "You can't defeat us."

Lynn leaped out of the rubble and got ready to leap at the masked beings again, only for Luna to get in front of her and stop her right on her tracks.

"Dude, calm down!" Luna told the enraged jock. "Rushing into a fight without thinking won't help us at all! We need to come up a plan first!"

"No we don't!" Lola proudly boasted, taking a step forward as she. "We just need to add a little more..."

Lola formed a diamond shape with her arms and yelled:

"Diamond flash!"

An intense flash of light suddenly happened, leaving the sisters temporarily blinded... and the masked beings completely unaffected. And as the pink masked being nonchalantly walked to the diva, Lola whined:

"Why did it only blind us?! Wait, why was I blinded by it in the first place?!"

The pink masked being grabbed Lola by the neck of her dress and lifted her, prompting Luna to dash right towards the being in order to save her sister. All this did was prompt the being to use Lola as a hammer and hit Luna downwards, leaving a hole in the ground.

Now that they were alone, the being looked at the diva before answering:

"Because you're a fool."

 _Back inside the Loud house..._

Lincoln was being chased by Ronnie Anne and Clyde around the second floor of the house, only for the whole house to shake and cause the trio to hit the ground. However, Lincoln managed to take this chance to hide in the twins' room, while Clyde and Ronnie Anne continued to chase after him... or so they thought.

Now that he had the time to catch his breath, the guy sat on Lola's bed and rubbed his forehead as he thought about the situation:

" _Okay, when did this day go from bad to awful?! First the schedule doesn't work as intended, then Lori and Leni drop a major bomb on us, including how I was apparently some sort of god, and now Clyde and Ronnie Anne want to know what I think about all this, when I don't even know where to begin!_ "

Then, the boy scratched his chin.

" _I mean, there have been times I wish my life was more...exciting. That much I can admit, but... being a god?! That's just too much! I mean, I don't mind having super powers, I just... I don't think I'm fit for such a position-_ "

Suddenly, Ronnie's head crashed through the bedroom's door, and she said, with a wicked smile:

"Here's an old movie reference!"

Then she chirped, "Actually, it's just me, Ronnie Anne."

Lincoln screamed and escaped the room, only for Ronnie Anne and Clyde to chase him into the last place he could hide: the attic.

 _Meanwhile, with Lori and Leni..._

The eldest sisters jumped and leaped all over the main street as they dodged, parried, or blocked all of Carol's attacks, all while the citizens that were on the street turned battlefield ran for their lives, and any vehicles in the vicinity sped away... except for one: the news crew's van, which stood in place as the fight raged on. When the blonde trio were far away enough, the news crew jumped out of the van and got ready to record.

This included a newswoman with a yellow uniform, tanned or slight dark skin, and brown hair. She took her microphone from her back-where she kept it, nobody knows-and watched as the blonde trio fought in the air, which basically just looked like a bunch of twinkles in the sky to the common eye.

Then she turned to the cameramen, and the news report promptly started:

"Good evening, citizens of Royal Woods," the newswoman spoke, while the noise of the fight was on-going in the background. "This is Catherine Sweetwater, reporting from the main Street of our beloved Royal Woods. As you can see right above me-"

The cameramen turned up, and showed the twinkles from Lori, Leni, and Carol's fight as Catherine continued:

"There appears to be some crazy phenomenon currently happening on main street. The street has been evacuated just in case the situation escalates, and right now it's recommended that all citizens still at main street, or heading to the main street, go back to your homes immediately. We'll update you in case anything happens. This is Catherine Sweetwater, from Royal Woods News."

The cameramen turned off his camera, and Catherine turned back to the twinkles in the sky, which were slowly heading towards the crew's location. This prompted them to go right back into their van and drive away mere moments before the twinkles crash-landed on the ground so hard, they shook said ground and left a large crater in the middle of the street.

Once the smoke dispersed, a certain scene could be seen: Lori and Leni, each with one hand grabbing one of Carol's punches.

"Stop with this pointless fighting, Carol!" Lori snapped at the blonde, who just flashed a smirk. "You know as well as we do that you can't defeat us!"

"Of course not," Carol narrowed her eyes. "That's why I'm not trying to defeat you."

Suddenly, a portal opened underneath Carol, and the young woman fell through it, leaving Lori and Leni briefly puzzled before they looked all over their surroundings. Then a portal opened on the sky, right behind Lori, and Carol came out of it and kicked Lori right in the face, hard enough to send her crashing straight into a building.

"I'm trying to stall for time!"

 _Back at the Loud backyard..._

The fight between the Loud sisters and the masked beings was still raging, and just like before, things... weren't exactly in the sisters' favor.

Lana lifted some rocks with her terrakinesis and threw them at the blue masked being, who simply slashed them apart with her claws. For some reason, the masked being also had a pair of feline ears and a tail sticking out of her butt, a sight that distracted Lana long enough to allow the masked being to slash at her, successfully striking her cheek. The plumber tomboy touched her slashed cheek, and seeing how it was bleeding, she narrowed her eyes and growled as the masked being prepared to strike again.

Meanwhile, Lucy formed a pair of giant arms made of light, and tried to smack the grey masked being with them, only for the masked stranger to dodge each and every attempt at a strike as they approached the Gothic poet. Once they were close enough, the grey masked being raised their left arm and formed a large hammer made of light, but just as Lucy panicked and tried to cover herself in a defensive manner, she somehow summoned a wall of light from the ground.

While Lucy thought she was safe, Lynn crashed through her wall of light with her super speed, making it crumble into pieces as the jock headed straight for the red masked being.

'Cause that clearly worked well last time!

However, this time, the red masked being actually bothered to block Lynn's attack and kick her back, before running around her in circles at high speed, until she formed a circle around Lynn's area, before running out of the circle area and snapping her fingers, causing the circle to explode into a red whirlwind. This sent the jock flying high in the sky, and the whirlwind dissipated just as the red masked being jumped as high as she could, then kicked Lynn hard enough to send her plummeting to the ground, crash-landing on the floor just as the red masked being landed safely.

And then the athlete screamed at the top of her lungs as she was surrounded by a red aura, which dissipated the resulting smoke cloud out of existence.

"How is this possible?!" Lynn snapped as she got up and rubbed herself. "How can it be possible that you have abilities like ours, but way better!?"

"Oh, our abilities aren't better ," the red masked being replied. "We're just able to use them to their fullest, something that you'll have to work at to achieve."

Angry at the statement, Lynn yelled at the top of her lungs and bum rushed towards the masked being, who simply charged their feet with fire, somehow without burning the ground in the process, then spun around just in time to dodge Lynn, then kick her right in the butt, hard enough to send her face-first into the ground.

And then her butt was set on fire.

While that happened, Lola narrowly dodged the pink masked being's swings of her quartz-encased arm, while Lana dodged the blue masked being's slash attacks. This caused the twins to go back until they clashed backs, with the twins just barely sharing a look before they leaped out of the way of yet another attack.

"What are we supposed to do?!" Lola exclaimed as she and Lana caught their breath, and the masked beings just... stood still and looked at them. "My flashing attack hurt us more than it hurt them! I don't know what else I can do!"

"Well, quit panicking and figure it out!" Lana replied, rolling her eyes. "And do it fast, 'cuz we're in the middle of something right now!"

And as that happened, Luan caught her breath as she faced off against the yellow masked being, who wasn't hurt at all.

"Alright, let's _cut_ to the _chase_ , shall we?!"

Luan formed a cutlass made of energy and dashed towards the yellow masked being using super speed, in a zig-zag manner.

"Is that all you got?" the yellow masked being scoffed, before slightly raising their arm. "I'm afraid I'm going to..."

The masked person formed a... frying pan made of energy?

" _Pan_ your work."

Once Luan got close enough, her super speed ran off, pun not intended, and she swung her energy cutlass just as the masked being swung their frying pan... and she was left speechless as her cutlass snapped in half in contact with the frying pan, before it hit her in the face so hard, it didn't just send her flying a while back, but it knocked off one of her teeth, and also got a face-print of Luan's face in that exact moment.

"H-How?!" Luan exclaimed, partially with worry, partially in pain, as she covered her mouth, but not before asking, "I had a cutlass, and you a frying pan! It doesn't make any sense!"

The yellow masked being shook their head as if they were disappointed. "You really do have a lot to learn."

And as the fights continued to move on, the purple masked being just remained at the sidelines, watching the confrontations at a safe distance. It's not that she had to worry about Luna, since she was busy deep underground, right?

But then, she heard something... mechanical in nature. And it was coming from the ground. So naturally, she took a quick look around, only for some turrets to burst from the ground, followed by a loudspeaker.

"This is for cudgeling my elder sister into my laboratory!" Lisa's voice spoke through the loudspeaker as the purple masked being. "Do you have any clue how long it will take me to repair the cei-!"

However, the purple living enigma shot some purple energy blasts at the loud speakers and turrets, destroying them in an instant.

"Looking for me? I'm underground!"

Suddenly, Luna burst from the ground and leaped as high as she could, before getting ready to swing her energy guitar.

"Here comes the rain and thunder now!"

One swing was all Luna needed to throw in order to send the masked being plummeting to the ground, causing a large explosion upon hitting the ground. And as Luna slowly fell down to the floor, the other sisters and masked beings stopped their fights to watch the aftermath of the attack, where Luna took a look at the smoke cloud left behind before dematerializing her energy guitar, and walking away from the scene...

At least, until the purple masked being's voice spoke:

"No one can blame you for walking away."

Luna stopped right on her tracks and slowly turned back to the smoking cloud of the attack's aftermath. Alongside her sisters, who stood agape in horror at what looked like a shadowy figure casually walking out of the explosion.

"Too much rejection."

This figure, of course, was the purple masked being, who despite have some dirt and bruises on their clothes, didn't seem to have been hurt by the attack in the slightest. And as they nonchalantly dusted themselves, Luna could feel her rage surge through her body, allowing her to form her energy guitar once more.

"No love injection."

Just as Luna got ready to strike the purple masked being, however, everybody in the backyard felt... something, in the air. And though the sisters weren't all that bothered by it, the masked beings were paralyzed in what seemed like fear. And once the sisters realized this, they tried to attack the beings, with Lynn being the first one to try.

However, the masked beings composed themselves and resumed blocking everything the girls threw at them.

"Oh come on, this is getting ridiculous!" Lynn snapped before throwing a kick at the red masked being's direction, only for them to block it with little effort. "What the heck's up with these guys!?"

 _Meanwhile, back inside the Loud attic..._

Lincoln hid in the several dozen boxes as Clyde and Ronnie Anne closed the entrance, with the Loud pets roaring, barking, and making other animal noises downstairs.

"Okay, that should keep the animals out of this for now," Clyde said as he and Ronnie scanned the attic. "Now let's go look for Lincoln."

"Alright then, that should be easy," Ronnie put her hands on her hips. "This place is cramped, so he probably doesn't have a lot of places to hide. Let's start looking!"

And so, the duo started to search in every box they could find. They search for quite a long time, or at least it felt like it had been a long time, but whenever they got close to Lincoln's current hiding box, he simply went to the next hiding box he could find.

Not that this stopped the pair from resuming their search soon afterwards. Ronnie did pause once she found a picture of great grandma Harriet, though.

"Wow, Goth-O actually looks pretty good on that outfit," Ronnie scratched her chin. "I wonder why she decided to change it."

"Actually, from what I heard, that's supposed to be their great grandma Harriet," Clyde casually pointed out. "Lucy just so happens to take most of her looks after her."

Ronnie glanced one more time at the picture, then shook her head. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure we've checked every box in this place, so we should've found Lame-O by now!"

Clyde hummed to himself. "Maybe we need to take a calmer, more gentle approach?"

And as Clyde got ready to try said approach, Ronnie, who was in disbelief at the suggestion, rolled her eyes and said:

"Nerd-O, don't bother, that's not going to work. Lame-O may be weak and fragile to an extent, but he's definitely not going to like it if we treat him like he's some defenseless baby."

Annoyed at the tomboy's attitude, Clyde retorted, "Okay then, answer me this: If you know Lincoln's "weak and fragile", as you say, then why did you bully him the first time you met him?"

Ronnie, caught off-guard by the question, looked away and sweat a little as she stammered, "W-Well, I-I didn't know he was that weak back then-"

"So you decided to figure that out by bullying him?" Clyde folded his arms and looked at the tomboy as he walked towards her with a disapproving look. "What if he had been weaker, huh? What if you had broken him somehow? What would you have done then?"

"I was just trying to show my feelings the only way I knew, okay?" Ronnie snapped in return.

Then, she smiled deviously as she added, "Besides, he took much more hits than you could ever hope to take."

Clyde narrowed his eyes, prompting the tomboy to continue:

"Let's be honest, Nerd-O: I'm not the only one with issues. If I have a terrible reputation for being a bully, you have an equally bad reputation in being a complete weakling who goes down in one hit, no matter how hard or soft that hit is!"

"At least I know how to speak to people," Clyde replied, narrowing his eyes. "You prefer to beat them up and hope they understand what your fists are trying to say."

Ronnie cracked her knuckles. "Oh really? How about we put that theory to the test?!"

Clyde smirked. "Maybe we should, but I can't help but think they'd be all bark and no bite-"

"Stop right now!"

The duo turned around, and saw Lincoln come out of hiding, before putting his hands on his hips and sternly adding, "If I tell you what I think about what Lori said, you promise not to beat each other up?"

Clyde shook his head, and with a smile, he explained, "Lincoln, we weren't planning on beating each other up at all. This was all just a ploy to get you to come out. Right, Ronnie Anne?"

The tomboy, realizing what this meant, stuttered as she tried to think of something, anything to say, but her mind was completely blank. This, of course, prompted Clyde to add:

"See? It was so good, even Ronnie fell for it!"

Lincoln chuckled to himself, but he took a deep breath as he realized he was cornered: He had to tell the duo about his thoughts on Lori's words. And so, once he calmed down, he stated:

"I just don't know what to think, okay?!"

Clyde and Ronnie exchanged confused looks, before the white-haired boy continued:

"Yes, you heard me right, I honestly have no idea what to think of what Lori said; me being a god, the superpowers, all those things, I don't know what to think about them!"

"Are you being honest, Lame-O?" Ronnie cracked her knuckles. "If you're just saying that to get us to go away-"

"No, he's being honest," Clyde stated, catching Ronnie's attention. "He's not stuttering or blabbering at all, which he would be doing if he was lying, considering how we kinda got him cornered right now."

"Yeah, and I'm not even going to bother trying to lie to you," Lincoln looked at the ground as he explained himself. "The truth is, I have no idea what to think: I mean, having superpowers sounds cool and everything, but everything else they said, like how I was a god, how there was another reality before this one, the castes, and the birthmarks... I don't know how to react to all that."

"Now that you mention the birthmarks, what does yours look like, Lame-O? Do you even have one?"

"I do have one, and it's in my chest." Lincoln got up and dusted himself, feeling a bit calmer now. "But it doesn't look like any of the castes symbols Lori mentioned at all."

"Can I see it?" Ronnie asked, tilting her head to her right and with a curious smile.

This got her a look from Clyde. "What?! I did ask!"

"Calm down, Clyde, we're alone right now, so I don't mind showing you my birthmark right now," Lincoln begun to unbutton his shirt. "But if you start laughing, I'm hitting you both."

Ronnie shrugged. "Sure, sounds fair."

Once his shirt was unbuttoned, Lincoln took a deep breath and opened up his shirt, revealing his chest birthmark. And like he said, it didn't look like any of the caste symbols that Lori mentioned. Instead, it looked like... a white spades symbol.

"Oh, spades! Like the card game suit!" Ronnie chirped, only to scratch her head in confusion. "But why a spades symbol of all things?"

"Again, I have no idea," Lincoln answered as he buttoned his shirt. "I was just... born with it, I guess, just like the white hair."

"Well, maybe you got it from one of your parents?" Clyde suggested. "I mean, one of my dads has the same square-caste-symbol-thing on their chest, so I assume I got my caste symbol from them. Maybe it's the same thing with you?"

Lincoln, however, shook his head in disagreement. "I've seen both my parents' birthmarks at different times, and neither of them are spades: Mom has a diamond and dad has a flower."

Clyde scratched his head. "But that doesn't make any sense... unless-"

Just then, the trio felt... something, in the air. They couldn't quite clearly tell what they were feeling, or whether it was good or bad, but they did know one thing: It was coming from the backyard.

And they weren't the only ones who felt it.

 _Back at Lori, Leni, and Carol's fight..._

The trio clashed at the center of the street again, though this time, not only did all of them look bruised, but Carol caught her breath as hard as she could, before dropping to her knees.

"Even after all this time, you still have terrible stamina management with your portals," Lori remarked as she dusted herself. "Now, let's-"

The eldest Loud sister suddenly froze in place, as the same thing in the air that was felt in the backyard, she felt right now, alongside Leni. Although the fashionista wasn't paralyzed in fear like she was.

"No... no way!" Lori thought, her eyes widening and her pupils shrinking as she got an idea of what this feeling was. "Please, tell me that's not happening!"

Suddenly, the skies darkened, with certain spots in the sky being colored blue, red, yellow, purple, grey, and pink... and they were all right above the spot where the Loud house's backyard would be.

"Oh crap, it is happening!" Lori exclaimed as she looked at the sky in horror. "C-Carol, quick, get up and-"

Suddenly, Carol dropped unconscious.

"Oh come on, the one time we need your help and you fall unconscious!?" Lori turned to Leni. "Fine then, Leni, let's go back home, we need to go there as fast as we can!"

"L-Lori, wait!"

But it was too late, Lori flew up and tried to head straight for the Loud house, only to flash turquoise lighting as she was paralyzed on the sky, with Leni flashing light blue lighting as the same happened to her on the ground. And then, a calm, almost bored-sounding voice spoke:

" _You really think we're going to let you do that?_ "

Lori and Leni recognized the voice, and said in unison:

"It's... you..."

" _Thanks for being literally ambiguous. We really appreciate the fact you don't state our names in public_."

And then another voice joined in. And this one sounded... cheerful:

" _Yeah, I mean, we can only enjoy the screams of pure terror for so long. It, like, gets boring after a while!_ "

"Just what are you planning to do?!" Leni exclaimed in fear. "Why is the sky, like, getting ready to summon the progenitors?!"

" _Do you really expect us to know anything about that?_ " the calm voice replied. " _They work independently from us. If they're being summoned, it's by their own desires, and likely against the wishes of their champions._ "

Suddenly, the turquoise and light blue lighting flashed again, allowing Lori and Leni to move again as the cheerful voice said:

" _And you're going to be first in line to watch the carnage! Now go, head to the Loud house, and don't even think about interfering with the progenitors' plans. And while you're at it..._ "

Carol was surrounded with turquoise energy, and levitated until she landed on Lori's back.

" _Take Carol somewhere safe so she can rest and recover her stamina. She's **very** important to us, so the sooner she recovers, the better._"

"Do we have to?" Lori whined in exasperation as Leni flew to her side. "Is it really necessary?"

"Lori, you know that we can't defy _their_ orders," Leni shook her head. "Come on, let's go back to the house."

"Can you at least carry Carol?"

"Sorry Lori, but you're the one with better upper body strength." Leni responded innocently.

"What are you talking about? Your caste is the one with super- you know what, never mind." Lori let out a sigh of pure annoyance, before she and Leni flew off back towards the Loud house... with the news crew van following them.

 _Back at the Loud backyard..._

The masked beings levitated high in the sky, and formed a line as their visors glew their respective colors: the red masked being's visor glew red, the pink visor glew pink, and so on. This was before they raised their arms, just as symbols appeared at the ground underneath them.

These symbols were a diamond, a paw, a skull, a fist, a crescent moon, and a five-leaf flower, which also glew as the colored parts of the darkened sky suddenly opened and parted the clouds, before summoning colored pillars that somehow managed to smack the masked beings into the ground.

"What the heck's going on?!" the twins exclaimed as they hugged each other for safety.

"Whatever it is, we can't just stand still and let them finish it!" Lynn stated as she cracked her knuckles and stretched for a bit. "Is anybody with me?!"

"Lynn, for the love of Mick Swagger's groupies, don't mindlessly head to action!" Luna snapped, stomping the ground and flailing her arms. "Try to at least think of some sort of plan first!"

"It might be a good idea to listen to her, Lynn," Lucy shouted as she hid behind Luan.

"Fine then, you want a plan? Well, her's my plan: We strike those jerks right here, right now!" Lynn turned to the levitating masked beings. "Besides, they're wide open! If there's a time to attack, it's now!"

And so, the jock leaped for the masked strangers, only for a thunder to roar like a lion as a red lighting bolt came down from the sky and struck the athlete mere moments before she clashed with the living enigmas.

As if that wasn't enough, the lighting bolt struck her so hard, she was sent plummeting to the ground, face-first.

"I'm going to be honest, I kinda saw that coming," Luan shrugged.

Suddenly, from the parted clouds came down six humanoid figures, who held themselves in a cross-like pose as a choir of heavenly... something sang their arrival. They slowly flew down the pillars of light, their presence growing stronger, heavier, and most importantly, more intimidating as they finally landed, and then dissipated the pillars of light into non-existence... by just waving their arms.

Once the figures could now be seen, the sisters got a shock when they saw these figures... looked just like themselves! Though with some notable differences, like the Luan look-alike having a green scrunchie, the Lola look-alike having a layered sea-like dress, to quite notable, the Luna look-alike having more black and little to no purple, and looking more like a punk rocker than... whatever Luna was, and so on.

They also, in general, had more pronounced hips than the sisters, their sclera were colored; The Lola look-alike had pink sclera, the Luan look-alike had yellow sclera, and so on, and their pupils looked like the caste symbols, like diamonds, glowers, crescent moons, all that stuff.

And they came with some commentary, provided by Luan, of course: "I didn't see that coming, though!"

"O-Our ladies... why..." the pink masked being weakly asked, getting the look-alikes' attention. "Why did you have us us to summon you?"

"Why wouldn't we?" the Lola look-alike put her hands on her hips. "I mean, first, you let yourselves be easily manipulated by Carol's words into helping her with her dirty work, again."

"And then, you decide to fight the Louds, when they've barely just discovered their powers," the Lana look-alike sternly added. "We get it: You and Carol want to teach them a lesson so they don't let their powers go over their heads. But wouldn't it be easier to hit them just hard enough to knock them out, rather than let the fight drag on for too long?"

"If you can end a battle in an instant, then you should, you'll be wasting energy otherwise," the Lynn look-alike shrugged and shook her head, with a smug smirk. "You should all be well aware of that fact by now."

"...We're sorry," the masked beings stated in unison.

"It's okay, darlings, we're here now," the Lucy look-alike said in a peppy tone, only to slowly turn to the Loud sisters with a wicked grin. "We'll take it upon ourselves to teach these little brats the lesson you were trying to tell them. And trust us, we'll make sure they get it."

"In the meantime, go back to HQ," the Luan look-alike ordered. "You should have a report from your breaker units by now."

The masked beings nodded and immediately formed portals that they jumped through back to HQ, with the portals vanishing from existence as the look-alikes turned back to the sisters, and flashed smug smiles.

"W-Who are you?!" Luna snapped as she took a step forward. "And why do you look like us?!"

"Oh, of course, where are our manners?" the Luna look-alike remarked with a casual tone. "We're the progenitors, the original matriarch of the reality that preceded this one..."

Then, she flashed a malicious smirk.

"And your _mothers_."

- **Next Chapter Preview** -

"Hey everybody, Lori here!"

As Lori said the next, the sisters stood still, with the progenitors standing at the other side.

"Things literally couldn't get any worse,"

Suddenly, a pillar of light burst from Lynn's location, which caught the attention of her sisters, the progenitors, and even Lori and Leni, who were miles away from the house.

"First we waste our time with Carol, and now,"

The scene changed once more, this time showing each of the sisters trying to fight the progenitors.

"Our sisters are defenseless against the progenitors!"

The last one to attack was Luna, who summoned her energy guitar and got ready to strike her progenitor counterpart, who simply said... something as she waited for the attack.

"Leni, we literally need to get back home as fast as we can!"

Then, as the focus is changed to show Ronnie on top of Lincoln-phrasing-Lori said:

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

As Lori spoke the next chapter's name, the scene changed to show Lincoln being restrained by Ronnie Anne with some lighting, with the boy clearly struggling as hard as he could to get out.

"A Fight That's Impossible To Win?! The Progenitors' Divine Discipline!"

Then the scene changed to show Clyde talking with a bruised Lynn at the living room.

"Don't miss it!"

Finally, we cut back to Lincoln, who's eyes spring open to reveal they were glowing an orange color.


	5. The Progenitor Strike

**Hello everybody, and welcome to the last chapter of the "Introduction Arc" of Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn. After this chapter will come a little "relax" period to prepare for the proper next arc, the "Proto-Lola" arc.**

 **And now, the reviews!:**

 **1) King Genocide: Both, in a sense.**

 **2) MasterCaster: A moment that may never come.**

 **3) Finnjr63: Thanks! :)**

 **4) Nobody245:**

 *** A) Probably not, since the story focuses on the Loud sisters and the main trio's (Lincoln, Clyde, and Ronnie Anne) journey.**

 *** B) Maybe yes, maybe not, depends on what ideas I get and whether I can implement them in time, or if I can even implement them at all.**

 *** C) You'll see in this very chapter.**

 **5) ChernoMan: And not in the good way XD**

 **6) animehero1000: Let's see if you're right.**

 **7) Guest: Gonna be perfectly honest, will I did use The Zamasu Saga as inspiration for the last part of my previous long fic, "The Loud Sim Date", I'm just taking inspiration for a ton of anime in this story. But, I guess that's just how it goes, huh? And the champions... you may see them again soon. Also, if you can, establish a specific name and go by it, so I don't end up confusing your review for somebody else's.**

 **8) Observant Guest: The voices don't differ at all, as long as they're not using some of their power, anyway. Also, before I reveal the birthmark location, I'm gonna be blunt; A parent having a specific birthmark, or both of them having a specific birthmark, doesn't necessarily mean the kid will earn said birthmark:**

 *** Harold: Forehead, Fist (Lynn caste)**

 *** Howard: Chest where the heart would otherwise be, Diamond (Lola caste)**

 **9) Guest: Well, somebody's a little salty about a necessary evil.**

 **And now, to the chapter proper!**

* * *

 **Episode 5: A Fight That's Impossible To Win?! The Progenitors' Divine Discipline!**

* * *

Back where we left off, the sisters stood in shock, staring at the strangers that looked like themselves. These same strangers had not only revealed themselves to be the progenitors that Lori warned them about, but they also claimed to be their mothers. Whatever the heck that meant, the fact that these doppelgangers knew who the Loud girls were was something they just couldn't ignore.

"What... what do you mean you're our mothers?!" Lola exclaimed, stomping the ground. "We're the daughters of Rita and Lynn Loud!"

"Not the one that was sent crashing to the ground, that's our sister," Lana added. "Our father's also named Lynn, and she's named after him-"

"We get it, Jophiel and Hayyel," the Lynn lookalike stated, rendering the twins speechless at the names. "And, well, I guess Harut and Marut were too scared to tell you the full truth."

"Jophiel!?" Lola said confused.

"Hayyel!?" Lana repeated, equally baffled.

"Who are Harut and Marut? Are you talking about..." Luan asked, only to pause as she gave thought to her question. "Well, I'm inclined to guess Lori and Leni, but that can't be the case, right?"

"Looks like we've forgotten that our children use their normal names, not their divine names," the Luan lookalike stated. "Apologies, I went with the assumption that you already knew you had both normal and divine names."

"As I was saying, yes, we're your mothers, and not only that, we even share the same names like you!" the Luna lookalike giggled. "But, to make this a bit more simple, just call us with "Mother" before our name. You know, "Mother Luna", "Mother Lucy", and so on."

"And like responsible mother figures, we have to watch our children's development so they grow up to be functional members of society," the Lucy lookalike, Mother Lucy, added in a tone implying she was trying to be friendly. "And in that matter, we've been watching you for a long time now, sweeties. Every single day, every single hour, every single year, you probably get the point."

"Okay, now they're getting creepy," Lucy remarked as she took a couple of steps back. "Just... what do they want with us?"

"Come to think of it, do you know those masked guys?" Lana blurted. " _They_ seem to know you."

"Oh yeah, we know them," the Lynn lookalike, Mother Lynn, said while waving her hand in a dismissive manner. "In fact, we had a certain someone recruit them for us. All we really did was help them control and manage their powers to the best of their abilities."

Lynn's hand moved and gripped the ground with her fingers. "So, it's because of you..."

Everybody turned to look at Lynn, who slowly got up as a red, fiery aura surrounded her. Not only that, but the ground started to shake, not to the same intensity from before, but still hard enough to catch the sisters' attention...

And then Lynn started to notably bulk up.

"It's because of you..."

Suddenly, Lynn looked up and, revealing her eyes were completely white, she yelled:

"That those jerks were better than us!"

The jock begun screaming at the top of her lungs, as her body bulked up quite significantly. Her arms, her torso, her whole upper body became bigger in size and quite muscular. However, although her legs also bulked up, they were a bit disproportionately small compared to the rest of her body.

And to top it all off, Lynn's ponytail was undone on its own, letting her hair flow wildly as she let out a gigantic scream, which could even be heard by Lori and Leni, who were miles away from the house.

"There's literally only one person I know who screams like that," Lori said with worry, before she took out her phone and called someone. "Leni, see if Mom and Dad found out what's happening back at home. If that didn't catch their attention, then I don't know what will."

Leni nodded as she took the phone, and waited for her parents to answer the call.

 _Meanwhile, with the Loud parents..._

Rita sat in a pitch black room, arms folded behind her back as she watched some monitors, while Lynn Sr. walked back and forth as the room flashed a certain order of colors: Purple, yellow, red, grey, blue, and pink. And then, despite the loud sirens being played, the man heard his phone ring, and answered the call.

"Mom! Dad!" Leni shouted from the other end. "Are you, like, there?!"

"It's Leni," Lynn Sr. told his wife before turning back to the wife. "Yes, sweetheart, we're here. What's the problem?"

"What's the problem!? How about the fact that the skies just darkened?!" Lori snapped at the top of her lungs, suddenly snatching the phone from Leni. "Listen, Leni and I had some... business to take care of, but we're heading to the house right now. I'm calling to ask if... our suspicions are correct."

Before he could even stutter, Rita got up, went to her husband, snatched the phone and stated:

"Yes, sweetie, they're correct."

The parents turned to a large screen, which was flashing red as a simplified image of the progenitors and the sisters fighting was shown.

"The progenitors are fighting your sisters right now."

"Ugh, dang it, I was hoping it was literally just my imagination!" Lori exclaimed. "Leni and I are going as fast as we can, but it might take a while before we get there."

"The progenitors could do a lot of things in the time it would take you to get to the house..." Rita sighed. "So I hope you get there quick. Bye, sweetheart!"

Rita hung up and threw the phone back to her husband, who narrowly grabbed it before saying, "What the heck was that about?!"

"Ugh, what's wrong this time, Lynn?" the Loud matriarch asked, folding her arms and turning to face her husband.

"You just told our daughters that the single most dangerous group of people imaginable are at the house, and you didn't give them any words of encouragement!" the Loud patriarch stated, earning an eye roll from his wife. "You didn't even try to come up with anything, you just... hung up on Lori like it was nothing!"

Suddenly, the woman grabbed her husband by his ear and dragged him with her as she stated:

"We have business to take care of, Lynn, business that will help our children! If we waste too much time on less important stuff, the entire operation could fail! And besides, Lori and Leni can take care of themselves, so just because I didn't give them any encouragement doesn't mean they'll suddenly turn into defenseless children. So stop being so overprotective and help me with the plan, okay?"

Knowing that arguing with his wife would simply lead him nowhere, Lynn Sr. bitterly answered:

"Alright, fine."

 _Back at the Loud backyard..._

Lynn's scream opera finished with a bang, as the athlete stood around and looked at her new, nearly bodybuilder-like muscular body. However, that wasn't the only thing she noticed, for she could feel a fire inside herself. A fire that was empowering her to unbelievable lengths! This was a fire that belong to only one kind of person!

This was the fire of a sore loser!

"Lynn, dude, what happened to you?!" Luna exclaimed as the hulking jock stomped towards the progenitors. "A second ago, you were struck by lighting and out cold, but now you're... this?! Did the lighting have to do anything with it?!"

"No, the lighting didn't do anything," Lynn formed a giant fist. "It's my hate for these unfair, messed up fights!"

"Oh look, Lynn's daughter discovered her Bersoreker form," Mother Lucy scoffed, before turning to the Lynn lookalike, who shook her head with her arms crossed. "Should I deal with her, dear sister?"

"My daughter, my problem, Lucy," Mother Lynn stated. "Besides, I don't even have to move to deal with her."

Lynn growled in pure fury, "That's the sort of attitude that cheeses me off! I mean, we just found out our powers, and now these jerks come in with ridiculous, unfair advantages, and we're supposed to take these buttkickings all over the yard!? Well, guess what!"

The hulking athlete leaped straight for the progenitors as she yelled:

"You're wrong!"

Mother Lynn, however, just smirked and lifted her right arm, right before the muscular Lynn threw a punch at her so hard, she sent waves through the air that made the ground vibrate. However, once everybody took a look at the progenitor that looked like Lynn, the sisters got quite the surprise.

The Lynn lookalike had blocked the fist thrown by Lynn... with only a finger. Her _middle_ finger, to be exact.

"Lynn, sweetie, do you really think that just because you discovered your bersoreker form, that you can maintain it?" Mother Lynn mockingly spoke as Lynn slowly, and seemingly painfully, reverted back to her base form. "Let alone use it in an effective way to hurt me?"

Lynn spat out blood right at her counterpart's face, who simply smacked it away before it could hit her. "Oh come on, that's just rude and childish, even for someone like you."

"I... I don't... understand..." Lynn said weakly, growing slowly terrified as she turned back to her base form. "That form... whatever it was... it should've helped me... defeat you! I... It should've worked! That's... that's how it works! I'm supposed to be the winner of this fight!"

Mother Lynn just chuckled.

"Oh, Lynn..."

The lookalike slowly got ready to fleck the fist, before stating, with a malicious smirk:

"You're the biggest loser I've ever met."

With one finger flick, Lynn was sent flying straight into the house. She crashed through the walls so hard, it shook the very foundation of the house.

 _Inside the house..._

This event certainly caught the attention of the trio and the pets upstairs. It wasn't long before the shaking stopped, though.

"What happened?!" Charles telepathically exclaimed as the pets looked all over the place. "Why did the house shake for a moment there?!"

The pets suddenly remembered something, "Lily's still downstairs!"

The animals ran back downstairs as fast as they could, only to see Bun-Bun carrying a clapping and laughing Lily at the top of the couch, with an unconscious Lynn laying on the ground face-first. The plush toy and the pets shared a look, and they could immediately tell the toy needed help. So they started to get Lynn up, while back at the attic, the trio slowly got back up and dusted themselves.

"I'll ask you about what Lori told us later," Lincoln remarked as he headed for the exit. "For now, we need to see what's going on with the roar and-"

"Lame-O, hold it!" Ronnie exclaimed, getting Lincoln's attention. "Maybe... maybe it's not such a good idea to go down right now."

Lincoln left the door's handle alone and turned back to Ronnie Anne, with a stern, disappointed look, and folded his arms as Clyde added:

"Yeah, seeing how we have no idea what sort of stuff Lori has put out for your sisters to fight, it might be a better idea to just stay here and lay low for the meantime."

"So, let me get this straight," Lincoln rubbed his forehead, then pointed at Ronnie Anne. "You, Ronnie Anne, who was really excited to test out your powers with my sisters, and was angry about being stuck at the sidelines, now want to stay at the sidelines because your afraid of what might my sisters are up against?"

Ronnie nervously nodded to confirm Linc's suspicions.

"And you, Clyde," Lincoln turned his focus to the dark-skinned geek. "You have no objections to this, despite the fact that you, like me, know how she wanted to train with my sisters earlier on, right?"

Clyde sighed and adjusted his glasses. "Lincoln, I can understand that this may seem... odd, to you-"

"I understand why you guys don't want to go out there, but I can't just stay here," Lincoln shook his head and reached for the door's handle. "My sisters are the ones out there, potentially getting hurt thanks to some unknown... thing. I need to go see if I can help them-"

Suddenly, Ronnie Anne leaped for Lincoln and pushed him, with the duo rolling off until they crashed at a couple boxes. The position they landed, with Ronnie Anne on top and Lincoln below her, was... interesting.

"Ronnie Anne, what was that all about?" Lincoln raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, Lame-O, but I can't let you go out there, there's just no telling what you'll run into!" Ronnie stated, then pinned the boy to the ground. "And don't even bother trying to overpower me, we both know that I'm stronger than you-"

Suddenly, Lincoln lifted his knees and hit Ronnie in the gut, causing her to release him and give him enough time to kick her away and get up. And as he dusted himself, he stated:

"You may be stronger, Ronnie, but that doesn't mean I don't have ways around that. That's something I have Lynn to thank for."

Just as the boy tried to reach for the door again, he was hit by a box thrown by Clyde, leaving Lincoln dazed as he gestured a recovered Ronnie Anne to come with him. Then they both got in Lincoln's way for the door, and the boy's eyes glew orange as he gritted his teeth.

However, Ronnie and Clyde didn't budge. Clearly, Lincoln would have to make them move the hard way.

 _Meanwhile, back at the backyard..._

With their athletic sister down for the count, the remaining sisters begun an intense barrage of attacks at their supposed "mothers". First, Lola went forward and tried to blind everybody with her "Diamond Flash", but not before yelling:

"Everybody, cover your eyes!"

The sisters and Lola obliged immediately, and then the diamond flash was shot. And once the light dissipated... the diva saw the "mothers" all had their eyes closed. And as she felt rage surge through her body, Mother Lola smugly explained:

"Well, you did say "everybody", wouldn't that logically include us?"

This was followed by Lana leaping in and motioning her hands so she'd summon a giant fist made out of rock. However, when she tried to punch the lookalikes with it, Mother Lana gave Mother Lola a look, and the lookalike drama queen jumped and landed on top of the fist, before putting her hands down. This somehow caused the fist to turn from rock to crystals, and very brittle ones too, since it only took one flick from Mother Lana to shatter the fist to pieces.

Naturally, Lana was shocked. "What the?!"

And Lola, of course, was shocked too but with a hint of amazement. "How did you do that?!"

"It's a very simple trick, darling," Mother Lola leaped down and landed in front of her "daughter", before showing her the glowing light coming from her palm. "You just have to focus the corruption in your body, and then allow it to spread all over the object, person, or anything you touch at all. Then, that thing will be forcefully corrupted into certain things, like for example, I corrupt things into becoming crystals."

"I can corrupt them into becoming animals," Mother Lana added. "Which type of animal depends on what I'm corrupting, but it's always an animal no matter what."

With that explanation done, the "mother" twins went back to their sisters as the next one to attack was Lucy. She didn't do anything fancy, just summon a pair of giant arms made of light, then send them down to the ground, supposedly to hit her counterpart.

What did Mother Lucy do? Snap her fingers, and without any warning, Lucy was covered in a pitch black dome, obscuring her vision and causing her light arms to collapse to the ground. The gravitational pull was so great, that they crashed right through the ceiling of Lisa's laboratory, before the lab's internal turrets promptly filled them with lead. And as the arms vanished from existence, Lisa scratched her chin and verified her giant robot wasn't damaged.

"Okay, Luna crashing into my underground lab is one thing, but massive limbs composed of energy particles?" she asked to herself, before giving the idea some thought. "Perhaps, those arms are but one proof that what Lori and Leni said was true?"

As soon as she got an idea, though, the prodigy quickly dismissed it, "Nah, I can't see that happening."

"I can't see anything happening!" Lucy shouted at the top of her lungs in a panic.

Mother Lucy snapped her fingers again, and the dome vanished, revealing Lucy getting on a fetal position, and taking several deep breaths to try and calm herself down.

"Wait a minute, Lucy's supposed to be the "Duchess of Darkness", right? The one that reads dark books to go to sleep?" Lana said as everybody looked at the terrified goth with worry. "I thought being stuck in the darkness wouldn't freak her out that much!"

"It wasn't just some darkness... it was a dark, empty void, where I couldn't even see myself!" Lucy shrieked, scanning her surroundings while shivering like she was in the north pole or something. "The only thing I could see... were several faces that looked like me... screaming in endless torment and despair!"

Mother Lynn shot a glare to Mother Lucy, and she looked at her palms. The left one was marked "mental torture", while the right one was marked "imprisonment".

"Oh, looks like I snapped the fingers on my "mental torture" hand by mistake," Mother Lucy sheepishly remarked. "Sorry, baby girl, I didn't mean to do it, honest!"

 _Back at the attic..._

Lincoln caught his breath as Ronnie Anne charged towards him, with Clyde staying behind to guard the door. So, the boy simply focused on the Hispanic tomboy, who threw a couple punches at Lincoln, who dodged most of them with ease, except for the last one which hit him in the nose. And though it did hurt, Lincoln didn't actually flinch that much. He simply covered his nose and growled.

"Huh? How can he just shake it off? Lame-O usually groans when he gets hit, not growl." Ronnie cracked her knuckles. "Let me try throwing another punch."

Ronnie did just that, and then, Lincoln opened his eyes, which were glowing orange, and grabbed Ronnie's fist and arm before growling once more, this time sending a chill down Ronnie's spine. Then, the boy lifted Ronnie Anne, then spun around for a moment before he threw her at Clyde, who barely processed what just happened before he was sent flying with Ronnie into the wall.

Lincoln then went to the door, pulled it open so hard he basically ripped it off, and threw the door away once he realized what he just did. Then, just as the pair recovered and got back up, Lincoln jumped down and ran down the hallway while Ronnie and Clyde tried to go after him.

"Lame-O, wait!"

Ronnie extended her arm towards Lincoln, and a short bit of electricity surrounded it before the girl unknowing shot a lighting bolt at Lincoln, which successfully hit. However, the boy didn't seem to be hurt, but he was paralyzed in place, with light blue electricity going through his body as he tried to break free.

"Whoa, what did you do?" Clyde asked.

"I... I don't know," Ronnie glanced at her hand. "I just thought that it if only I could paralyze him with electricity like that guy in InFamy, and it just... happened."

"You seriously need to practice that stuff, it could be helpful in the future," Clyde patted Ronnie's back. "Anyway, I'll go check what happened downstairs, you stay here and keep Lincoln in place."

Ronnie rolled her eyes and nodded while Clyde ran to the stairs, walking past the paralyzed Lincoln in the process. Once he did this, however, it wasn't long before he felt a threatening atmosphere around the guy, almost as if the anger in him was growing... stronger, somehow. Either that, or he was growing very frustrated with how he wasn't getting his way. Nevertheless, the boy continued on his way downstairs to see what was going on, leaving Ronnie alone to deal with the struggling Lincoln.

 _Back with the sisters..._

The next one to attack was Luan, who quipped:

"I like _dark humor_ , but that was overboard!"

This somehow caused Luan's shadow to sprout from the ground, and essentially come alive. And though her sisters were surprised at this act, the mothers... not so much.

"I honestly had no idea this would happen, but I can work with it!" the comedian turned to her shadow and barked, " _Sow_ them what you got, shadow me!"

Shadow Luan's created a bunch of seeds, and threw them at the lookalikes, who didn't even have to dodge any of them, they simply stood still as the seeds completely missed them.

Just what Luan wanted.

From the ground sprouted several large plants that wrapped themselves around the copycats, and suspended them in the air. Although, while they did seem to feel a bit of discomfort with the situation, they didn't seem to be in any pain. Specially not Mother Luan, who smirked and scoffed:

"Hey, what did the big flower say to the small flower?"

Suddenly, a massive flower sprouted from the ground, and as the sisters' jaws dropped in disbelief, Mother Luan finished her little joke:

" _What's up, bud?_ "

The giant flower somehow absorbed the smaller flowers planted by Shadow Luan, freeing the copycats. And as the flower turned into a giant tree, the lookalikes fell and landed safely on the ground. This was the perfect time for another set up!:

"Why is a tree like a big dog?"

The giant tree slowly morphed into a giant canine creature, with the looks of a dog, but the ferocity of a wolf, and the desperate need for some hippie to protect them.

" _They both have a lot of bark._ "

The massive tree dog let out a titanic bark, which not only sent the girls flying away, with Shadow Luan turning back into Luan's inanimate shadow when she left the ground. Once the girls crashed and slid to the ground, Mother Luan turned to the giant tree dog and joked:

"Good to see you have more bark than bite."

The tree dog was engulfed in flames, and Mother Lana looked away and covered her ears as the tree dog howled in pain, and burned down to a crisp, leaving only dust that was sent flying by the wind moments later. That, and an angry statement from Mother Lana:

"Why do you always have to do that!?"

"Do you have any better idea to get rid of a giant tree dog, sis?" Mother Luan sternly inquired.

And as the lookalikes turned back to the sisters, there was only one person left to attack them: Luna. However, she didn't react right away, instead she shivered as she could only ponder what the heck they were up against.

" _I still can't believe these are the progenitors, Lor and Len told us about!_ " the rocker thought, sweating bullets as she tried to move her arms, with great difficulty. " _First, they come out of nowhere in pillars of light. Then, they claim to be our mothers. And now, nothing we throw at them is working?! I can't even see a scratch on any of them! Just... what are we supposed to do now!?_ "

As she finally managed to move her arm, Luna's look slowly turned into one of pure terror. And mere moments after she summoned her pink-lavender-blue energy guitar, the musician clutched her chest and held back tears as she asked herself:

" _What am_ I _supposed to do now?_ "

The rocker clutched her guitar with both hands, which shook rather notably as she took a step forward and got ready to leap right at the lookalikes. And as she caught her breath, her younger siblings spoke:

"Is Luna... scared?"

"Luna's never scared unless things are really bad!"

"She's supposed to be cool as a cucumber, right!?"

That last statement was all Luna needed to realize what she needed to do: She needed to try and make a difference, where her other sisters couldn't. So she leaped as high as she could, and got ready to swing her instrument at her counterpart.

"Sweethearts, you have to understand one very important fact," Mother Luna smugly started. "One that's not even that hard to comprehend."

The humanoid paused, and effortlessly blocked Luna's incoming energy guitar axe attack... without even moving. Rather, she simply formed a shield, surrounded by crescent moon symbols all over it, around herself that repelled the attack so hard, Luna's energy guitar was sent flying, before vanishing from existence.

"If you got wrecked by our champions, who in turn can't do anything to us, then what makes you think you have any chance against us?"

Before Luna could reply, Mother Luna held hands with her sisters, and her eyes glew purple as they suddenly started to float and levitate. Then, Mother Luna turned off her shield and separated from her sisters, who went on to get... uncomfortably close to their respective "daughters", except for Mother Lynn, she helped Mother Lucy corner Lucy.

"W-What do you want with us?!" Lana exclaimed, trying to get between Not-Lana, Not-Lola, and her own twin.

"It's only natural for a mother to be worried of her children, remember?" Mother Lana stated as she placed Lana elsewhere, and started to... sniff her. "Specially when they go on to live with their... father."

"F-Father?" Lola stuttered as Mother Lola checked her body, even to the point of touching her arms and torso. "Please tell me you're talking about Lynn."

"You still don't understand, huh? I guess that's not surprising," Mother Lola leaned closer to Lola's ear and said, "After all, your father made sure that your psyche was ruined, that your sense of self was diminished. He made you all in a way so that you would believe every lie he's spilled into your heads ever since you were born. It's not surprising, then, that you think his _son_ is your father. You probably even think that he loves you, and that he's some sort of all-forgiving, goody two shoes."

Then, she leaned even closer, and whispered with a tender, loving tone:

"Guess what, sweetie? You're _wrong_."

 _Back in the Loud house..._

Ronnie Anne grabbed her arm as Lincoln continued to try and overpower his electric paralysis, all while looking like he was slowly getting angrier by the moment. And judging by how the lighting sometimes changed from light blue to orange at random times, he was slowly overpowering the might of Ronnie Anne. Well, the might of Ronnie's electricity, anyway.

" _What is going on with you, Lame-O?!_ " the tomboy thought as she started to lose her grip on the boy. " _I know Lori said that you were the former god of some place, but this change of attitude... is something wrong with you, Lincoln?_ "

And as that struggle happened, Clyde and the pets gently put Lynn on the couch, with the athlete coughing a bit before trying, rather hard from the looks of it, to catch her breath. Blood was going down from the edges of her mouth, and even down the nostrils of her broken nose. She also seemed to be holding back her tears, going by how she was sniffing and biting her lips.

"Okay, Lynn, stay calm," Clyde told the injured jock. "Now, try to remember what happened, and tell me how did you end up crashing in the living room, looking like you just came out of a beating."

However, once Lynn begun remembering her recent... not-so dignified fight, rage begun surging through her body as she stood up, chanting:

"It's not fair... It's not fair..."

"Lynn, settle down!" Clyde said as he tried to get the athlete to sit down. "You're in no condition to stand up, you need to rest!"

"That's not fair!" Lynn flailed her arms and legs up and down to signify she was about to throw a temper tantrum. "This isn't fair! Those jerk's weren't fair! Their powers weren't fair! Nothing's fair!"

And as the athlete's hissy fit continued, it took Clyde and all of the pets working together to try and stop Lynn from just running right back to the battlefield, where she would no doubt be trashed... at best. So, once he managed to pin her down, Clyde stared at Lynn's eyes as he yelled:

"Lynn, try to be reasonable! Whatever happened to you, it was done by someone much stronger than you! And look at how badly beaten and bruised you currently are! Just what do you think you're going to gain by going out and confronting whatever hurt you, other than a trip to the hospital, or worse, the graveyard?!"

Hearing the last part sent a shiver down Lynn's spine, and somehow made her calm down as well. Then, she took several deep breaths to further calm down, while Clyde simply waited for her to finish, not moving a muscle just in case he did something that would tick her off. Once she finished, Lynn put up a little smile and said:

"You're right."

"Good, glad we could come to a peaceful conclusion," Clyde adjusted his glasses and took out a first aid kit from his back. Where did he keep it, who knows. "Now, next question, what the heck happened to you? Sorry that I ask that right after you came out of it-"

"No, I'm actually glad you asked, 'cause I need to tell somebody about what happened," Lynn folded her arms. "So, we were training with the holograms, nothing out of the ordinary so far, but then, out of nowhere, something sends Leni and Lori flying off who knows where! Then, a bunch of masked guys come out of portals, and we try to fight them and find out that they have better powers than we do!"

Clyde raised an eyebrow. "Better powers?"

"Well, they know how to use the same powers that we have to their full potential, I think that's what they said anyway," Lynn sighed. "So we fought against those people, but then something weird happened and they summoned even more people from the skies on pillars of light, who then sent them off to who knows where! And, get this, not only did those jerks look like us, but they also had even more ridiculous powers than the guys we were fighting before."

The dark-skinned geek scratched his chin, and as he asked the next, Lincoln started to calm down, seemingly giving in to Ronnie's paralyzing lighting.

"Did these "jerks" go by any name?"

Ronnie Anne took a sigh of relief as Lynn answered:

"The progenitors."

Lincoln's eyes sprung open, glowing orange.

 _Yet again, back at the backyard..._

The progenitors were gently, delicately hugging and rubbing their daughters' bodies in a way that seemed like they were trying to comfort them. Not only that, but they also seemed to be healing them, somehow.

"What?" Luna asked in confusion. "Why are you doing this?"

"Sweetheart, the only purpose of our visit is to make sure you don't let your power get over your head," Mother Luna stated. "After all, your Dad's power got over his head, and... well, let's just say, bad things happened."

"Father?" Luna asked, trying to look away from her counterpart. "Who... who's our father?"

The mothers exchanged looks, and in unison, they turned back to their "daughters" and bluntly stated, while Mother Luna forced Luna to look at her glowing eyes:

"Lincoln."

A massive scream was heard coming from the house, which was followed by the boy bursting out of the door, with an orange aura and glowing eyes, not to mention a furious glare. However, once the lookalikes turned to look at him with smug smiles, the glowing eyes and aura vanished in an instant, leaving Lincoln to be suddenly faced by the approaching "mothers" and a large headache.

"Greetings, Lincoln," Mother Lynn stated as she and the other "mothers" reached for the boys head. "Do you remember us?"

The girls touched the boys' forehead in unison, and Lincoln 's headache not only got worse, but he started to see seemingly endless memories and flashbacks of people who looked just like him... and his friends... and his sisters... and the rest of his world, but... different. And as this continued, the mothers also saw his memories, but they weren't exactly pleased with what they saw.

Eventually, however, the memories became too much for the boy, and Lincoln screamed at the top of his lungs before collapsing on the ground, with the lookalikes flying away from him as the sisters ran to his aid.

"These memories... these flashbacks... are but pieces of a whole puzzle, his memories of his original actions... his original sins... they're not with him anymore," Mother Lucy spoke, and shook her head in disappointment. "I didn't think he would be stupid enough to try and get rid of his memories after he made the new reality."

"Of course he would do something so stupid!" Mother Lynn stated, folding her arms and gritting her teeth. "He did a ton of terrible things to us. To our status. To the... protophilim... And you know how he'd much rather forget he ever did a mistake, rather than learn from it."

Mother Lynn turned to look at the sisters as they surrounded the unconscious Lincoln. "A trait that our daughters sadly inherited from him! And now they're foolish brutes, all of them!"

"Look at both sides, before you decide, Lynn," Mother Lana stated. "What we saw today hasn't given us any hints they can work out what Lincoln refused to fix, but that's why we came here."

"Now we know, that we can no longer stay in the sidelines," Mother Lucy shook her head. "Now, we have to step up and get involved in their lives."

"And make sure that we leave an impression they won't forget," Mother Lola scratched her chin. "In fact, I may have an idea on how to help Junior here realize how her father has ruined her."

Then, the progenitors' physical forms started... twitching and glowing.

"That will be left for later, our physical forms can't remain in this world anymore," Mother Luan stated. "And there's only one explanation."

" _Yes, it's literally us,_ " a familiar voice spoke. " _Get your butts back here. We're feeling bored, and we need entertainment._ "

Not having a choice against the voice, from what they could tell anyway, the mothers held hands as their forms started to destabilize more and more.

"Hey, fakers!"

The mothers turned around, and saw the sisters shooting glares at them. Glares of determination.

"We'll learn how to control our powers," Luna turned back to the progenitors. "And when we face off next time, _we_ will rock you!"

Mother Luna sighed and got ready to snap her fingers, with her fellow progenitors.

"Which is why this will hurt us more than it will hurt you."

The progenitors snapped their fingers, and before they could even process what just happened, the sisters suddenly went through the same thing Lincoln did: A memory overload. Except, rather than see memories of an old world, they saw memories of people who looked just like them. With... rather gruesome fates for the other people being the last thing they saw before collapsing.

And this happened just in time for Lori and Leni's arrival.

"Ah, dang it, we're too late!" Lori exclaimed as she and Leni flew down to the collapsed sisters. "Please tell me you didn't hurt them!"

"Of course not, that's their father's job," Mother Luan scoffed. "But trust us, after they wake up, they'll have a lot of questions you'll have to answer."

"Oh, and by the way, we thought about it and... well, being called "mothers" doesn't sound so good when the lord and savior's followers don't say it," Not-Luna sighed, then got an idea. "So, be sure to let our daughters know that from now on, we won't be known as the mothers... but as the progenitors. And more importantly, the protosisters."

Lori and Leni nodded.

"Proto-Sisters..." Proto-Luna repeated, gaining a smile from the sound of it. "That has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"

"It sure does," Proto-Luan stated in a stern tone. "Now come on, the elder sisters aren't the most patient of people."

And so, the protosisters waved goodbye to Lori and Leni before their physical forms just... vanished, leaving Lori and Leni to deal with their unconscious siblings and Carol. At least, that was until Clyde and Ronnie came into the scene.

"Is everything okay now? Can we-" Ronnie asked, before she noticed Lincoln. "Lame-O!"

"What happened?!" Clyde exclaimed as he and Ronnie went to the boys' aid.

"Look, it's something that literally would take too long to explain," Lori put Carol on the ground gently. "For now, we need you to help us take our sisters and Lincoln back into the house, so they can rest. They've been through a lot, so they deserve it."

Ronnie and Clyde exchanged nods, and everybody went back inside to let the sisters, and Carol, rest and recover. That, and give Lori and Leni some time to think of what to say. After all, there would be a lot of things they probably would need to explain once their sisters and Lincoln regained consciousness.

- **Next Chapter Preview** -

"Hey everybody, Lincoln here!"

The scene showed Lincoln waking up from his coma, to find Clyde and Ronnie Anne right next to him. They then talk for a moment before Lincoln rubbed his forehead.

"Man, my head hurts, what the heck happened?"

Lincoln was handed a mirror, and he looked at it to see his bandaged forehead as he said something.

"Last thing I remember is Ronnie Anne paralyzing me,"

The scene cuts to show Lori and Leni being confronted by some of the other sisters, including Lisa.

"And, apparently, it seems I'm not the only one with a headache."

Next, Lynn snapped at Lori, who stomped the ground and gained a light blue aura as the electricity went haywire, going on and off at random. And then, it showed Lincoln talking with the sisters after calming down.

"Come on, girls, calm down! Stressing ourselves isn't going to fix anything!"

Then three short scenes were shown in rapid succession:

First, the Loud parents arriving at a room with some shadowy figures sitting at a table, and a monitor screen hanging above them.

Then, Ronnie Anne sitting at the kitchen table, with a disappointed, yet concerned Maria, her mother, sitting at the other side.

Finally, Clyde sat on his bed while looking at the ceiling, only for the phone nearby him to start ringing.

"Specially since I don't think we're the only ones in trouble..."

Lincoln continued to talk to the sisters, before cutting back to the Santiago household, where a shadowy figure came out of the shadows, revealing herself to be Carlota Casagrande.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

The Loud sisters nodded in agreement and walked to their rooms, leaving Lori and Leni to talk with Lincoln and Clyde.

"Aftermath Of The Impossible Battle! What Are These Truths That Can't Be Explained?!"

Two scenes played in quick succession: Carlota revealing something that made Ronnie Anne jump out of her seat, and Clyde sternly talking to the phone.

"Don't miss it!"

Finally, back at the living room, Leni asked something to Lori, who sighed and answered something before answering the call.


	6. Calm After the Storm

**NEW ARC STARTS... not quite yet. A Hopeful Observer suggested I shout "NEW ARC STARTS NOW!" at the start of every story arc, what do you guys think about that?**

 **Anyway, here we are, in the first of about two or three chapters that serve as a build-up to the "Proto-Lola" arc, the next major story arc. And as of this writing, I'm on the final battle, and it's already looking to be quite long, already longer than most chapters until now.**

 **So, before we get to the reviews, what do you guys think of extra-long chapters for climactic battles at the end of an arc? Good idea? Bad idea? Tell me what you think in your reviews and I'll see what I can do. But heads up: The final battle will be one heck of a ride.**

 **Anyway, to the reviews!**

 **1) Hatoralo: And now, time for things to calm down for a moment.**

 **2) Nobody245: The Lincolns, despite being on the same body, are different people so:**

 *** A) The new one, yes. The prototype one, AHAHAHAHAHA no.**

 *** B) The new one might get some odd looks, and they'll be wary of anything that could summon Proto-Lincoln. As for the prototype one, yeah, he won't get any allies out of the sisters.**

 *** C) The new one, no, he's not a boss in any case. The prototype one... he really wishes he was one. Too bad I'm not nice enough to give him that privilege.**

 **3) GennaiArakida-XIV: For the flashback and screams, you don't wanna find out. And trust me, what you saw here, is nothing compared to what's coming in later arcs.**

 **4) Omega Ultra: Yep, you gotta wait for those answers, sorry.**

 **5) Finn63: Again, you'll get answers, but you gotta wait for them.**

 **6) animehero1000: Didn't think about the divorce comparison until now. Good luck, buddy. :)**

 **7) Observant Guest: Lincolnism is the same, just saying that now. As for sub arcs, I don't have plans for anything like that, but that could change in the near future. Also, Bun-Bun's not alone.**

 **8) Hatoralo: Lynn's development will begin eventually, I promise. And though we'll take a break from the fights for a while, they'll be back with a bang.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 6: Aftermath Of The Impossible Battle! What Are These Truths That Can't Be Explained?!"**

* * *

Lincoln slowly recovered consciousness as he tried to see something... but all he could see was a pitch black void. No matter where he looked at, there was nothing but complete darkness... that is, until a pink light suddenly appeared. And either he unconsciously floated closer to it, or the light went closer to him, because it grew in size as it slowly morphed into... a crown?

And it wasn't any little cookie cutter crown, it was a silver-pink crown that looked like it was worthy of a queen.

Suddenly, an intense flash of pink light came from the item, and Lincoln now saw that he was no longer in the black void. Rather, he was in a relatively big, pink room, with some crystals laying on both the ceiling and the wall, with some items inside there. Stuffed toys were also laying all over the place, and there was a medium-sized bed at the corner, with another pair of stuffed toys next to the pillow: A unicorn, and a dragon.

In fact, if you took out the crystals, you could even say this was the room Lola would've gotten if she Lana hadn't been born... and if the house the Louds had bought had been bigger. However, once he took a quick look around, he found out something interesting:

He was in the middle of a tea party with someone who looked like Lola, but with a layered dress, and the crown he saw before on top of her head. Let's call her Proto-Lola.

She held a teacup as she gave the boy a look that was a mix of confusion and worry.

"Is there a problem?"

Lincoln flinched, and so did the not-Lola. After all, that was definitely voice, but he didn't even say it.

"Uh..." Proto-Lola shook her head and took a sip of her tea before answering, "D-Don't mind me, it's nothing."

And once again, the boy's voice spoke without him causing it:

"My sweet little Lola, you know that you can trust me to help you with any problems you may have. And right now, I can see that you seem concerned about something. Did Lana do something? Did one of our children misuse their powers? Are you trying to develop a new power for your caste? Tell me what it is, and I'll help you with it."

Needless to say, that one sentence alone opened a massive can of questions to the boy's mind. What Lana was he talking about? What new power for the caste? And the one that disturbed him the most, what children?!

"Lincoln, you know I'm very happy that you accepted to do a tea party with me," Proto-Lola spoke, with notable worry in her tone. "But, I have to ask, and I'm sorry if I'm making you upset, is something on your mind?"

"Not at all," the boy hastily answered before taking another sip of his tea. "Why would you ask?"

"It's just that, lately, you've been acting a bit... distant," Proto-Lola took a sip of her coffee without taking her eyes off Lincoln. "Almost as if you were hiding something from us, something that's been troubling you."

"Nothing's bothering me, I just need a little bit of a break, which is what I'm getting from this tea party of ours," he bluntly explained with a calm tone. "So don't worry so much, alright, my little princess?"

Proto-Lola flinched and blushed. "You know I find that nickname embarrassing!"

Lincoln teasingly smirked. "Little princess."

Proto-Lola giggled, her blush growing bigger and redder. "Stop it!"

The boy smugly smiled, and then got up and roared like a dragon before he chased after Proto-Lola, who screamed for a moment before laughing as she ran away from the guy. And the duo laughed out loud as they ran all over the white room, leaving their little tea party unfinished. And this continued for a while until Proto-Lola jumped to her bed, where Lincoln, or whoever he was looking through anyway, cornered her.

Then, their eyes interlocked... and Proto-Lola blushed and looked away as the boy caressed her cheek. And it was at this point that the boy got a bad feeling about what was coming.

"Have you calmed down yet?" the boy "spoke." "Or do I need to try something else?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Proto-Lola answered with a wide smile. "Can we go back to the tea party, now? We got really side-tracked there."

The boy leaned closer to the diva's face, and gently whispered:

"Sure, but there's one thing we're missing..."

And then, he leaned even closer...

 _Back in reality..._

Lincoln's eyes sprung open as he suddenly got up and looked around his surroundings, thankfully saving himself from witnessing an unpleasant image. He was at his closet-bedroom, with Ronnie Anne and Clyde by his side, both with worried looks.

"Are you okay, Lame-O?" Ronnie asked, her frown turning into a surprised look as she casually added, "We were starting to get worried we had lost you; You've been out for months!"

"Wait, what?!" the boy exclaimed in horror.

"Actually, it's only been like a half hour," Clyde explained before throwing a disapproving look at the tomboy. "Ronnie here just decided to play a little prank for no reason."

"At least I was trying to lighten the mood, Nerd-O!" Ronnie snapped, grabbing Clyde by the neck of his shirt and pulling him forward. "Meanwhile, you're just standing still, worrying about him and hoping for the best, without doing anything to ensure he's okay! At least I tried to cheer him up!"

"And how's making him worry about potentially sleeping for years supposed to cheer him up?!"

"At least I put some effort into bringing a smile to his face!" Ronnie snapped, grabbing Clyde by the neck of his shirt and pulling him forward. "Meanwhile, you're just standing, worrying about him and hoping for the best, without doing anything to ensure he's okay! Some best friend you are!"

Clyde gasped, and he promptly slapped Ronnie so hard, she actually released him and stood still in shock, while Lincoln pulled the most downplayed look of horror he could muster, to not worsen his headache.

"Guys, please, don't fight!" Lincoln told the duo in a subdued, calm tone, trying to get their attention without worsening his headache. "Fighting in here won't help anybody."

"Did you... did that... was that... is this... is this a dream?" Ronnie scanned her surroundings in confusion, while Clyde just rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Did that seriously just happen?!"

"So, you need a reminder?" Clyde cracked his knuckles and slapped the tomboy again. "There you go!"

"...Okay, I don't know which is weirder," Ronnie rubbed her slapped cheek. "The fact that Nerd-O here was crazy enough to slap me, or the fact that it actually hurt!"

"If you're done with your little spat, then please calm down now," Lincoln said before he rubbed his forehead.

"Yeah, you may not want to do that too much, Lame-O," Ronnie took out a mirror and showed it to Lincoln, making him see his reflection, revealing his forehead was bandaged.

"Huh, well, I guess I should've figured, though I'm surprised whoever bandaged me up didn't bandage my entire body," Lincoln said. "I don't even know what happened; I remember you guys tried to stop me from going outside, and I broke free. After that I went outside to help my sisters and...I thought I saw 2 sets of my sister." Lincoln clutched his head.

"Uh Lincoln, you did see 2 sets of your sisters," Clyde said. "Lynn told us the lookalikes called themselves, "the progenitors."

Lincoln eyes went wide, "The Progenitors!? Lori didn't say anything about them looking like our sisters!" Lincoln felt his headache getting worse as he remembered what they sounded like before he fainted. His dreams from last night and just now were starting to bubble up to the surface; how they spoke, their cries, and the expressions their faces made. They matched his sisters to a T.

"This is insane! They attacked my sisters and somehow they are my sisters!"

Lincoln grabbed his head a bit tighter as his headache intensified closing his eyes in the process. This prompted Clyde to say, "Don't think about it, Lincoln."

Ronnie Anne adding, "Yeah, Lame-O, you should try to calm down-"

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Lincoln screamed at the duo, causing them to flinch and take a step back. "Do you have any clue how crazy this is to me!?"

The duo exchanged worried looks as the boy continued:

"They look exactly like my sisters, they sound like them as well! What if Lori is training us to fight them!? I don't now if I can do that!" Lincoln clutched his chest. "What if I see them again? What if I collapse again? What if, for whatever reason, I have to pick between trusting one of them or one of my sisters?!"

Realizing that Lincoln was having a panic attack, Clyde stepped toward him.

"A-Alright, Lincoln just take a breath, okay?" Clyde put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him pleadingly.

Lincoln snapped his eyes open at Clyde. He wanted to keep shouting, tell him to back off, that he had no idea how he felt right now, but he saw the look in Clyde's eyes. He saw Ronnie Anne had the same look; one of concern. Reluctantly, Lincoln started to take deep breaths.

"Okay, Lincoln I know that this a lot to process, but you can't freak out like that." Clyde explained. "Otherwise, you won't be able to come close to figuring out anything related to what just happened!"

The boy did calm down, seeing logic behind Clyde's reasoning, but his attention was caught when he heard someone shouting downstairs:

" _We want answers, and you have them, so spill!_ "

Yup, those were his sisters alright. What were they arguing about this time? The boy slowly got off his bed, and with help of Ronnie and Clyde, the trio walked downstairs to see most of the sisters, besides Lily, arguing with Lori and Leni. Like Lincoln, they had bandages wrapped around their heads, except for Lynn who had bandages all around her body.

"Dude, everything that just happened to us was... was crazy okay!?" Luna exclaimed, with the rest of the sisters nodding in agreement. "You have to explain us what the heck was that all about! Like the Progenitors being copies of us!"

"And them saying they're our moms!" Lynn pointed out with anger. "Which I still don't buy."

"Where would I have even started with that!?" Lori snapped at the younger girls.

"Girls, you may want to go back to resting," Leni suggested, separating the pair before a fight would escalate. "You, like, just woke up from having a memory overload. Getting all emotional and obsessive over what happened, won't help you recover from that, like, at all. In fact, it'll totally make things even worse. I mean, don't you guys have a bit of a headache right now?"

Lana reached for her head, and winced when she touched the bandage. "Our heads hurting isn't gonna make us drop all this guys."

"I know, but calming down and taking a rest is going to help you mentally and physically recover from your headaches," Lori calmly explained. "So come on, everybody go back to your rooms and relax. You've been through enough today."

"You really think you can dismiss us that easy?!" Lisa yelled, stomping the ground and getting everybody's attention. "You have a lot of things to explain and you're not going anywhere until you dispense all information and answer all inquiries!"

"OMG Lisa, you were, like, not here when everything happened," Leni pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "You said you didn't want to get involved in this, so why the sudden need to know what went down?"

"I may not have been involved in the training, the others' encounter with the unknown beings, or even see what was going on above my laboratory," Lisa took a deep breath. "But I did get to see some bizarre sights; Luna crashing down into my laboratory, a pair of massive hands made of light energy, and other phenomena! As a woman of science, I'm inclined to find the truth about anything whenever I can! Besides, I don't want Darcy getting endangered by whatever transpired earlier when she comes over to look at my Royal Woodroid 5000."

"When we explained everything before the training, you thought we were nuts and didn't believe it," Lori added, folding her arms sternly and addressed the rest of the sister. "And that goes for the rest of you! If you guys couldn't believe what I told you before, then what makes you think you'll believe anything we tell you about the Progenitors and their real identities?"

The ensuing silence and stunned looks from the sisters were pretty self-explanatory. At least until Luna suggested:

"You could've tried!"

"You think it was easy telling you earlier!?" Lori snapped, stomping the ground. "Do you know how stressed and scared I was thinking you guys would call me crazy!? That you'd think Leni and I were going nuts!? And now, here we are, with you demanding us to explain everything again!"

Lynn growled, gritting her teeth and cracking her knuckles. "Precisely! Now start explaining, 'cause what you said earlier didn't even come close to covering everything!"

Wordlessly, Lori formed a pair of fists before she stomped the ground again, this time causing her to be surrounded by a light blue aura, which was surrounded by a turquoise aura, with electricity flowing around her as the electricity of the house went bonkers; turning on and off at random.

"Lori, calm down!" Clyde exclaimed as he, Lincoln, and Ronnie made their presence known. "Whatever you're doing, it's causing the power to go haywire!"

Upon hearing Clyde's voice, Lori immediately calmed down and the electricity went back to normal as she and Leni went to the trio.

"I'm glad you're awake now, Lincoln," Lori said before giving her brother a hug. "Tell me, how do you feel?"

"I feel better, well for now anyway," Lincoln gently scratched his head. "I have a bit of a headache, but I'm sure it will clear up if I rest and relax."

"Which won't be possible if you start yelling down here!" Ronnie sternly added, throwing a look of disapproval at the sisters as she added, "Seriously, what's going on here?"

"Right, you seriously expect us to tell you what happened?" Lynn scoffed, folding her arms as she walked towards the Hispanic tomboy with an angry glare. "This is a family matter, and you're not a part of our family, so don't think you can just go ahead and ask something so personal!"

"Look, I'm not trying to get involved in something personal," Ronnie replied, putting her hands on her hips as she returned the glare. "I just want to know if there's a way to fix whatever's causing you to scream like a banshee, so Lame-O can rest and recover from his headache!"

"And what makes you think you know what's best for him?" Lynn narrowed her eyes. "Last time I checked, your way of showing him you liked him was by bullying him!"

"That's ancient history!" Ronnie yelled at the top of her lungs. "Get over it, Jock-O!"

"Both of you stop!" Lincoln screamed, grabbing his head in pain. "You're not helping me get over this headache at all, so listen, here's what we're going to do: Ronnie, since you're easy to anger, just go back home already."

Offended, Ronnie Anne was about to fire back before realizing Lincoln was probably right. Then she remembered Bobby wanted her to come back son.

"...Come to think of it, Bobby must be worried sick about me right now," Ronnie scratched her chin. "However, I do want to see how the rest of this thing plays out-"

"Ronnie, or you leave right now, or I'll literally tell Bobby about your little "cosplay" session with your cousin!" Lori snapped.

"Alright, geez, no need to threaten me like that!" the tomboy flinched and sighed. "I'll be leaving now, bye everyone."

The tomboy walked to the exit, and once she had left the house, Lincoln turned to Clyde and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I hope this isn't too much to ask, but I need you to stay with me as support, just in case things go awry," the boy then turned to his sisters. "As for everybody else, sit down, we're going to try solve this in a civilized manner, just like how Mom and Dad would want!"

"Now that you mention them, where are your parents, anyway?" Clyde inquired.

 _Speaking of the parents..._

Lynn Sr. opened the door and took a quick look at his surroundings, before Rita poked him to let him know she wanted to enter. So the duo went inside, and mere seconds afterwards, the door closed behind them.

"At last you arrive, Mr. and Mrs. Loud."

The couple flinched and turned around to see a light turn on, revealing a large table and some shadowy figures sitting on all but two chairs, and a computer screen hanging from above.

"We've been waiting for you. Please take a seat."

The parents obliged, and mere moments later, Lynn Sr. asked, "So, what's the meeting about, Boss Computer?"

"Mr. Loud, I believe we agreed that you should not call me "Boss Computer" as it's not only degrading, but inaccurate, since I'm not your actual boss, just a medium that your boss uses to communicate with you," the computer stated in a stern, robotic tone. "I warned you that failure to follow the protocol given to you would result in you being forced to partake in the task of being forced to join the inquisitors on a mission, as their bait."

If Lynn's worried expression was anything to go by, he understood quite clearly what the computer was implying.

And then machine looked around the room. "As for your question, the purpose of this meeting is to discuss the current events. We just received information that the champions and the progenitors entered this reality briefly, is this correct?"

Rita exchanged looks with Lynn Sr., then hit him in order to speak up.

"I'm afraid the rumor is correct, chief," the man answered, giving his wife an angry glance before he continued, "Just a moment ago, we received news that the progenitors did enter our dimension. Not only that, they also fought against our daughters."

"I'm assuming the outcome was predictable?"

 _Back at the Loud house..._

"We fought as hard as we could, dude," Luna somberly answered, looking at the ground as she finished, "But no matter how hard we hit or how much we tried, they're wicked strong."

Lincoln scratched his chin. "You tried everything you could?"

"We pulled every trick and attack Lori and Leni taught us before they were suddenly attacked by... something," Lucy answered with a worried tone. "Once they had left, we were basically left alone to defend ourselves against the masked strangers."

Clyde snapped his fingers. "And Lynn said that these strangers had the same powers as you, but with the knowledge of how to use them to their fullest potential."

"And we couldn't do anything when they went all out against us," Lola pointed out, swaying her hair to the right. "It almost felt like the training we went through was pointless, or incomplete. And we all know who to blame for _that_."

The sisters' eyes fell on Lori and Leni, mostly Lori.

"To be fair, we weren't expecting anybody to attack us so early," Lori hastily pointed out. "We honestly thought we literally had enough time to teach you all you'd need to know to defend yourself. The attack of both those masked strangers and the progenitors were unexpected."

"Now that you mention it, where exactly were you during the attack?" Lucy asked, raising an eyebrow. "Leni summoned a shield, something attacked you so fast we couldn't even see it, and you were gone for the entirety of the fight."

"Lucy does have a point, that's a bit strange," Lana remarked. "Were you having trouble with whatever or whoever attacked you, or did something else come up?"

The duo exchanged looks, and answered in unison:

"A bit of column A, a bit of column B."

"Well, thanks for giving us that answer, it's not vague at all," Lisa said, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "Anyhow, at least we do know one thing: We need to prepare just in case we're attacked again. So, does anybody have any ideas for how we'll survive a potential second encounter with... whoever attacked our siblings?"

 _Back with Lynn Sr. and Rita..._

"Well, I-"

"Mrs. Loud, your input has not been requested by anybody in the room," the computer bluntly stated, turning its focus to the woman. "I suggest you learn to know when it is okay to speak, otherwise, you'll have to be penalized."

Though Lynn Sr. flinched at word "penalized", Rita just asked, "Can I at least tell you my idea since I was about to say it?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to wait until the "laugh out loud and then bluntly say no" program has been installed in my database to get your answer, Mrs. Loud," the computer stated before turning back to the rest of the members. "Now, let's return to the topic at hand. Anybody has any ideas to deal with the progenitors inevitable return?"

"We should try attacking their champions when they're at their most vulnerable," one of the shadowy figures said. "After all, they use their champions for nearly everything, they won't be able to enter this plane of reality without them, right?"

"Have you forgotten that even if we defeat the champions, the progenitors can just replace them?" another shadowy figure pointed out. "Besides, their champions rarely leave themselves out in the open. Tracking them down isn't worth the time."

"Well, let's try sending a double agent to their followers' base-"

"We already did that, and she has yet to answer. That is, if she hasn't been taken out already."

And as the rest of the meeting room continued to speak, Lynn Sr. and Rita mumured and whispered something to themselves, which eventually caught the attention of the suspended computer.

"Mr. and Mrs. Loud?" it said, putting all eyes on the surprised couple. "Is there something you'd like to share with us? If that's not the case, then you'd need to be penalized for your rude refusal to listen to the ideas of your fellow workers."

"Um, actually, we were talking about Rita's idea from earlier," Lynn Sr. reached for his back and took out some blueprints. "And, if you'll allow it, we would like to show the blueprints we got for it."

The computer glanced at the rest of the room, then stated:

"Reveal the blueprints, please."

The man obliged, and once they were uncovered, the computer scanned the idea while the rest of the figures looked quite... surprised, at what it entailed. This, however, didn't stop the computer's screen from turning green, and flash the message of "Approval" repeatedly.

"Looks like we have reached a conclusion."

 _Back at the Loud house... for the millionth time..._

"Since we're neither going to get anywhere by forcing Lori and Leni to tell us the truth, or further stressing ourselves, the only thing left to do is just calm down, go to sleep, and see what we can do tomorrow," Lincoln folded his arms and turned to look at his older sisters. "Luna, you, Luan, and Lynn go upstairs and make sure Lily hasn't woken up, or nothing bad has happened to her."

"Now that you mention it, we were yelling loud enough to wake her up..." Luna nodded. "Alright bro, we'll check her out."

Then, as the trio went upstairs, Clyde turned to the younger sisters. "Lucy, since I doubt that Lisa will bother to relax and calm down just to focus on her project or whatever, you and the twins will go back upstairs and rest as much as you can. Read a book, drink some warm milk, or anything if you need to, but you have to sleep so you'll recover from the headache."

Finally, Lincoln asked, "Are we clear?"

Everybody nodded.

"Okay, now, let's head to bed."

The sisters got up and went to their rooms, except for Lori and Leni, who watched the girls leave as they were approached by Clyde and Lincoln, the former helping the latter keep his composure.

"Thanks a lot for, like, your help, guys," Leni said before giving both boys a kiss on the forehead. "Who knows what would've happened if you hadn't come."

"I would've gotten a migraine, most likely," Lincoln quipped, only to wince afterwards. "But anyway, that's enough for today, I need to go rest."

"And I have to go back home too, my parents are going to get worried if I stay here any longer," Clyde said before letting Lori and Leni help Lincoln stay up. "Can you please take him upstairs?"

"Of course," Lori nodded. "Thanks again for your help."

Then, just for the giggles, Lori gave Clyde a wink, causing the boy to blush and quickly run out of the house. Once he was out, Lori and Leni helped Lincoln go back upstairs, with Lori noticing Leni giving her a smug look a couple moments afterwards.

"D-Don't literally read too much into that, alright?" Lori quietly snapped at her younger sister. "I just felt like teasing Clyde a little, okay?"

Leni chuckled and rolled her eyes, with Lincoln doing the same as they continued to bring him to his room.

 _M_ _eanwhile, at the Santiago residence..._

Ronnie Anne knocked the door, and Bobby quickly answered it, and gave his younger sister a tight hug before she could even say anything.

"You can't even begin to imagine how worried I was for you!" the guy exclaimed as he rubbed his cheek against his sister's, who was quite clearly confused at the action. "Where the heck have you been?!"

"Relax, Bobby, I've only been to the Loud house," Ronnie replied as she and the guy separated. "I didn't go anywhere else."

"Oh, I'm so glad you didn't," Bobby rubbed the back of his head as he hastily revealed, "Because Mom's about to squeeze every bit of the truth out of you."

Naturally, Ronnie flinched, "Wait, what?!"

Literally seconds later, Ronnie found herself sitting at the other end of the kitchen table, with her mother, Maria Santiago, sitting on the other end. Bobby stood by her side, twiddling his fingers as he nervously crouched down to her side and whispered:

"Sorry, Nini, but I couldn't convince her not to do this. I mean, I suggested to ask you about your day, but she took it to the extreme!"

"Roberto, please leave us alone," Maria stated with an authoritarian tone. "Your sister and I have to discuss this in private."

Bobby brushed Ronnie's hair one more time before he left the girls alone. And once he was out of sight, Maria spoke:

"This is so unlike you Ronalda," Maria said, taking a deep breath. "You're usually responsible when it comes to your chores, and yet-"

"Oh come on, we just moved back in here, and you're already scolding me!?" Ronnie snapped, slamming her fist on the floor as she added, "What did I even do this time?!"

"You know very well what you did," Maria rolled her eyes in exasperation. "You left the house without hesitation, and before we even finished unpacking our stuff! You didn't even unpack one of your boxes before you left!"

Ronnie gently hit herself. "Oh right, that's what I was forgetting! Alright, I'll get to it-"

"Don't bother," Maria sighed. "A certain someone came over and decided to unpack your stuff for you."

The Santiago matriarch snapped her fingers, and the certain someone came out of the shadows, revealing themselves to be Carlota Casagrande, one of Ronnie's cousins.

"Oh, hi, Carlota," Ronnie nervously greeted, rubbing the back of her head. "How is the piercing industry doing for you?"

"The less I talk about that, the better, trust me," Carlota shuddered at the thought, only to chirp up when she remembered something. "Anyway, before I forget, your mom and I struck a deal: In exchange for help with some stuff I need to do, which I'll explain later, I'll make sure that whenever you start staying outside far longer than she's comfortable with, I'll bring you right back to our safe little haven!"

Ronnie raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Whenever you go out, a timer of sorts will start once you step out of the house, and once the time hits zero, Carlota will be informed about it so she can send you back home," Mrs. Santiago nervously explained, twiddling her fingers as she added, "Bottom line; Once your timer's finished, Carlota will go to wherever you are, and pick you up to take you back home, as long as it doesn't interfere with any important business you may have at the moment."

"Wait, what?!" Ronnie slammed both her fists down the table. "You can't just decide all this stuff without telling me about it first! That's not fair!"

"Actually, dear cousin, it's perfectly fair," Carlota teasingly pointed out. "You left without telling anybody or help unpacking, and your mom established all these new rules without telling you in return."

Ronnie got off her chair and stomped her way out of the kitchen in rage, shouting, "That's it! I'm going back to my room!"

And Maria... didn't react. At least, not until Ronnie was out of sight. Once she could verify the tomboy had really left, Mrs. Santiago eyed Carlota and gestured her to go comfort the girl, probably because the woman herself felt too tired at the moment.

"Don't worry, Aunt Maria, I'll make sure to comfort Ronnie to the best of my ability!"

Mrs. Santiago smiled as Carlota strolled out of the kitchen and onto the living room, where she flashed a smug smile at Bobby before she went upstairs, with the boy following her soon afterwards.

 _Finally, at the McBride's house..._

Clyde rested on his bedroom, laying his head on the pillow as he read the latest Ace Savvy: Dreamcatcher manga chapter. The story basically dealt with Ace Savvy and his trusty sidekick, One-Eyed Jack, going through the dreams of people to save them from villains, and it was well-known for somehow managing to use action in a way that allowed the readers to sleep peacefully.

Something that Clyde desperately needed after the day he had. Seriously, superpowers? Multiple realities? Copycats of the sisters invading in their world?

When did life itself turn so... bizarre?!

But nevertheless, the boy continued to read his manga as a pair of familiar faces entered his room: His parents, Harold and Howard McBride.

"Clyde, are you still awake?" Harold asked worriedly.

"Yep, still awake," the boy deadpanly answered. "I'm trying to fix that, though, so you don't have to worry about that."

Harold and Howard exchanged looks, and Howard promptly spoke:

"Okay, champ, we'll trust you to go to sleep. But, we just want to let you know, that if you're curious about something or if you want some answers... they'll come to you eventually, you just got to wait."

"Got it," Clyde stopped reading for a moment and threw a smile at his parents. "Goodnight, dads."

"Goodnight, Clyde." the couple replied before leaving the room.

And just as Clyde was about to continue reading his stuff, his phone rang, and he immediately answered the call. "Hello?"

"Goodnight, Clyde, it's good to talk to you again."

The boy flinched, recognizing the feminine voice to belong to a certain someone. Someone that brought nothing but bad memories to him.

"Well, I wish I could say the same to you," the boy sternly answered. "What do you want?"

"Just some confirmation on some rumors my "helpers" have found for me, that's all," the voice explained. "According to these rumors, Ronnie Anne, the strongest girl in Royal Woods, has returned. Is this true?"

The dark-skinned geek stood up as he pondered what to tell the voice. He could lie to protect Ronnie Anne, but then again, the two never really interacted that much, and when he tried to think of a reason to lie about the tomboy's status, he remembered a certain sentence she said:

"If I have a terrible reputation for being a bully, you have an equally bad reputation in being a complete weakling who goes down in one hit, no matter how hard or soft that hit is!"

After remembering those harsh words, and the lack of an apology, Clyde narrowed his eyes and stated:

"The rumors are true, Ronnie Anne's back."

The voice chuckled maliciously.

"Perfect. Now I can finally show her how things have changed around here."

 _Sometime later, at the Loud house..._

Lori paced back and forth at the living room, while the rest of her sisters-and Lincoln-were resting on their bedrooms. Leni sat on the couch, rubbing Charles' head as he rested on her lap, supposedly acting like a therapy dog or something.

As for the rest of the pets, they stood around near the couch, watching the eldest sister walk back and forth.

"Well, this is just great! Simply perfect! And literally the worst scenario possible!" Lori exclaimed, though she made sure not to do it so loud that she would wake up her siblings. "Not only did the progenitors attack out of nowhere, but now our sisters, and eventually Lincoln, will go all up on our noses, demanding that we give them answers they're not ready for yet!"

"You're being, like, too paranoid, Lori," Leni replied, trying to remain positive. "Look, Lincoln managed to calm them down, figure out what to do next, and get them to go to bed for the night. We have nothing to worry about."

"Leni, I'm happy that you're trying to be optimistic, and I really don't want to put you in a downer, but one way or another, our siblings wants answers," Lori looked at the ground, and her eye twitched as she continued. "And some of the things they'll want answers too are either hard or outright impossible to explain, both logically and physically!"

Leni stopped rubbing Charles' fur and looked down in contemplation, at least until she got an idea. An idea that came to her when Bun-Bun came from upstairs and ran to her side. However, Lori also caught a glimpse of the toy, and shot a glare at it, paralyzing it in fear.

"What, are you, doing here!?" the paranoid phone-holic yelled at the living plushie, who had light blue electricity going all around it. "You know that Lincoln's going to freak out if he doesn't find you where he left you!"

Suddenly, Leni went to the rescue! "Lori, calm down, he's just here to help."

"Leni, we literally have our own Bun-Buns," Lori sternly pointed out, turning her focus to her younger sister. "I don't see why we should use Lincoln's Bun-Bun rather than our own, specially when he... she... it means a lot to him!"

Bun-Bun narrowed its eyes, then took out Leni's phone and marked a number, with Lori answering the phone at light speed seconds before the "you got a call" tune played. Upon seeing the name of the caller, however, Lori froze in place.

The name of said caller?

"The Biker Trio"

"Oh no," Lori turned to Bun-Bun with a worried look. "Please don't tell me you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting."

Bun-Bun folded its arms and raised an eyebrow, almost as if he was reacting to a bad joke.

"Lori, that's, like, not very nice," Leni scolded, narrowing her eyes. "You know the Bun-Buns can't physically speak when they're in toy mode."

"That's not what I literally meant!" Lori snapped and showed the phone to Leni. "Look, see who we're calling, and you'll get it!"

The fashionista looked at the number. However, rather than flinch or panic like Lori did, she gave her older sister a worried look and asked:

"Lori, do we have any other choice?"

The eldest sister thought about the question for a moment, and it wasn't long before she came to a saddening conclusion. So she answered the call, but not before somberly answering:

"No, we don't."

- **Next Chapter Preview** -

"Hey everybody, Clyde here!"

The first scene showed Clyde and Lincoln taking a look at their surroundings as they walked towards their school.

"As much as I hate to say it, it's time to go to school,"

Then, Lincoln and Clyde meet Ronnie Anne, and the trio talk for a moment.

"And apparently, Lincoln and I aren't the only ones with an issue about it,"

Three scenes were shown in quick succession: Luna coming to contact with a blushing Sam, Luan flinching as Giggles appeared right besides, and Lynn nervously talked with Margo.

"Lincoln's sisters have issues at their schools as well!"

The scene changed, this time showing Lincoln, Clyde, and Ronnie Anne in the nurse's office, with Lincoln being handed a pair of earmuffs by the nurse, Maria Santiago.

"But most importantly, that doesn't seem to be all that's happening in the school..."

As Clyde said the next, the twins were shown walking alongside several other students, most being older than them.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

The twins ran to meet with the main trio among the mob of students. And then Lana grabbed Lincoln's arm and walked away from Ronnie, Clyde, and Lola.

"The Calm After the Storm! A School Day With An Extra Something!"

Lola snapped, and spoke with Ronnie Anne and Clyde shortly afterwards.

"Don't miss it!"

The final scene showcased was of Lucy entering the Mortician's Club, just in time to see Haiku snapping at someone.


	7. School Day

**Okay, here we are, next chapter in the little period of "filler" before we head to the Proto-Lola arc for real. And believe it or not, by the time you read the chapter, the last chapter of the arc has been complete for a while now. Let's just say you'll be in for quite a read when we do cross that bridge.**

 **And again I will ask, what do you think of extra-long chapters for the climax of the story arcs? I don't remember anybody answering this question, and it's important to know if it's a good or a bad idea, so I can make sure this story's quality doesn't plummet to the ground. And yes, I know one little thing like length won't necessarily ruin the fic, but it doesn't hurt to ask.**

 **But now, to the reviews:**

 **1) Finnjr63: Thx. :)**

 **2) Nobody245: It'll be a looooong while before it happens, but yeah, the P-sisters will do an enemy mine with the main characters at some point. Can't tell in what context, though.**

 **3) Observant Guest: Just a heads up, it might be a while before Bun-Bun plays a super active role, since the story's about the main trio (Lincoln, Ronnie, Clyde) and the sisters first and foremost. Also, about Carlota playing a big role... oh boy, you're in for a treat.**

 **4) ChernoMan: Really? You fell for that joke? Also, I'm starting to wonder exactly how long the "this is whack" feeling is gonna last. Hopefully I can redeem myself in your eyes soon enough.**

 **5) animehero1000:**

 *** Trust me, if Clyde and Ronnie's relationship is annoying you, then it might take a while before they get off the ground and become closer friends.**

 *** Yeah, being more knowledgeable than everybody else sucks.**

 *** Keep the award. Things are gonna get more ambiguous/threatening from now on.**

 **6) Omega Ultra: Bun-Bun's kinda like a guardian, yes. Not a very good one unless ordered to, though.**

 **Anyway, onto the chapter!**

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 **Episode 7: The Calm After the Storm! A School Day With An Extra Something!**

* * *

It was the next day in the city of Royal Woods, and as everybody got up to the enticing call of the rooster, a disturbing realization hit the Loud family:

"Today's a school day!"

And so, the sisters, Lori and Leni in particular, immediately sprung up and got everything ready for this dreaded school day, while Lincoln... just remained in his bed, slowly getting up after waking up, only to suddenly wince as his headache started up again.

"Wait, why do I still have a headache?" Lincoln asked to himself as he got off his bed. "I'm fairly sure I should've gotten over it by now, so why is it still here?"

The boy sighed in frustration. "Well, no point wondering about that now. It's monday, and as much as I hate to say it, I have to go to school."

So, Lincoln changed from his pajamas to his usual outfit, left his room, and did the rest of his usual morning routine before heading outside, where he met a worried Clyde. "Hi, Lincoln, how do you feel?"

"Headache's still there, but it's not nearly as bad as it used to be," Lincoln answered, forcing a smile as he and Clyde walked to the school together. "At the very least, I'm not going to throw up from stress overload anytime soon. My sisters are doing well, Lori and Leni are staying behind to watch the house, everything's okay."

"What about Lisa?" Clyde asked. "What's she doing?"

"Lisa..." Lincoln scratched his chin. "She's doing fine too, I guess... but honestly, I have no idea."

 _Speaking of Lisa..._

The prodigy sat on her desk, looking at three figurines: One based on her, one based on Darcy, and one based on the Royal Woodroid 5000. And for some reason, they were all the same size.

"So, first I will allow Darcy entrance to my laboratory, and then I will guide her to the main room, where the Royal Woodroid 5000 is resting," Lisa explained as she moved the Lisa and Darcy figurines to the robot. "And then, once over here, I will explain everything to Darcy about how cool this is and the amazing things it will do for the city."

Lisa paused and turned to look at whoever she was talking to. "What if this doesn't convince her, I hear you ask?"

The scientist turned back to the figurines. "Simply put, I will explain the relation the robot has with the Blarney Rangers, Darcy and I's favorite show from the Blarney franchise, and bam, she'll immediately put all the pieces together and get, as Lynn would say, pumped up for the event!"

Lisa put the figurines on top of the robot figurine, only for them to fall off as she finished:

"And that's how I'm going to convince Darcy to join my mission to build the Royal Woodroid 5000!" Lisa finished with excitement. "So, what do you think?"

The person she asked the question was none other than Lily, who sat on the ground and glanced at the scene and her older sister for a moment. She then blew a raspberry at Lisa, who flinched and sighed as she asked:

"I need to take a simpler approach, don't I?"

Lily nodded with a joyful smile.

 _Later, back at the school..._

Lincoln and Clyde walked towards the building as they took a look around, noticing most of their classmates were also heading there, rather than trying to avoid the place. However, their attention was immediately caught when they spotted a certain figure leaning next to the entrance.

It was Ronnie Anne, but with a collar attached to her neck. And it didn't seem like a typical collar, for it had a timer going from 1 hour, 59 minutes and downwards.

"Hi, Lame-O, how are you doing?" Ronnie somberly greeted as the boys approached her. "Did you manage to recover from the headache?"

"I thought I would, but for some reason, It's still there," Lincoln answered, wincing and grabbing his head as the headache started acting up again.

"Then why did you come here?!" Ronnie asked, rubbing her forehead in disbelief. "Do you really think a place as stressful as the school is going to help you with your headache?"

"I came here in order to tell Mrs. Johnson about my condition, specially since, for some reason, neither mom nor dad did it before they left, and Lori and Leni are busy with their stuff," Lincoln put his hands on his pockets. "So, I have no option left but to come. Besides, it'll be far easier to convince Mrs. Johnson to let me go if she sees my injury, rather than just be told about it."

"And I'm going to be his support just in case something happens," Clyde added as he put a hand on Lincoln's shoulder, earning a smile from the boy as he added, "And since we're talking about why we're here, I thought you had changed schools, Ronnie Anne?"

"I thought so too, but for some reason, when we came back here through the tunnels, mom told me that I was going to go to the same school as you guys," Ronnie explained in frustration. "She didn't even explain anything, she just told me to go to Mrs. Johnson just in case I had any questions. And you can bet that I have a lot of questions!"

"And so do I," Clyde pointed at Ronnie's collar. "For example, what's up with that collar?"

Ronnie looked at her collar, and took a deep breath before putting her arm behind her head sheepishly. "Well, this is an embarrassing story, but get this: When I came back home, mom was quite angry that I suddenly left without telling anybody."

"A reasonable reaction," Lincoln remarked, with Clyde nodding agreement.

After showing her distaste at the comment with a glare, Ronnie continued, "And when I woke up, I had this collar attached to my neck, which started counting down how long I have until my cousin Carlota comes out of nowhere and drags me back to my house."

"That's not so reasonable," Clyde said, his eyes growing wide at the statement. "I mean, making sure you don't stay out for too long is good, but is it really necessary to put a collar on you, even when you're a pain to deal with?"

"Hey!" Ronnie yelled.

Suddenly, the school bell rang, causing Clyde to cover Lincoln's ears to protect him from the noise. It didn't stop his head from ringing and causing him pain, but at least it lessened it.

"Looks like we have to go in," Ronnie Anne remarked before walking to Lincoln's side. "Let's go to the nurse's office first to see if Lame-O's going to be okay."

"What?!" Lincoln yelled, his eyes shaking as he looked around his scenery. "Speak louder, guys, I can't hear you!"

"Yep, we need to take him to the nurse's office right away," Clyde stated, and as he and Ronnie ran into the building, he took the chance to ask, "By the way, Ronnie, why is your timer set to about 2 hours? Or am I getting it wrong?"

"Supposedly, we're only going to get some update on the school's status and nothing more," the tomboy casually answered. "It's nothing too long or expository, at least I hope it isn't, so once it's over, mom expects me to go back home immediately."

Clyde just hummed to himself as the journey to the nurse's office continued.

 _Meanwhile, with the older sister trio..._

For Luna, the musician walked across the hallways of her high school, gently touching her bandaged forehead.

" _My spinning head thinks I'm covered in an armor of glass, and I can't really blame it for it,_ " Luna thought. " _I mean, the headache itself calmed down to the point it doesn't bother me, but dang it, my head still hurts. I really hope this school day goes by quickly."_

Then, she saw some of her classmates and other students looking at her in confusion, but once she turned around, she saw the source of the confusion was none other than her friend, Tabby, who sported a furious look on her face.

"Tabby?" Luna blurted as the girl walked past her. "Dude, what are you-"

"Bugger off, josser!" Tabby snapped at her friend's face, with evident rage in her tone. "I'm not in a good mood today!"

"Whoa, geez, alright, calm down!" Luna jumped back until until she hit a locker, where she stood there shivering as she answered, with a nervous smile, "I-I'll leave you alone now."

Tabby rolled her eyes and resumed her walk, allowing Luna to not only calm down, but analyze the situation:

" _Okay, so, Tabby used British slang and words, which she usually doesn't use unless she is wicked emotional. She also doesn't go to this school, but she does come here once in a while when Sam or any of her other 'tives come here. However, she looked pretty ticked, so-_ "

"Laaaaaammp."

Luna jumped yet again, and this time, she came face-to-face with Sam, who slightly leaned left and right repeatedly, blushing surprisingly hard as she took several heavy breaths.

"Oh, hi, S-Sam," Luna nervously greeted as the musician wobbled closer to her. "Listen, about the music room deal-"

Without warning, Sam slapped Luna in the cheek hard enough to leave a hand print, and as Sam snapped at the rocker, all eyes turned to look straight at their scene.

"Don't you *hick* dare bring that up! I was so *hick* miffed about the whole deal, I had to *hick* go on the lash to try and forget it!"

"Yeah, and I'm very sorry about that," Luna stated. "Look, if there's anything I can do to make things right, just tell me and I'll see what I can do."

Suddenly, the duo were surrounded by the students as Sam pinned Luna against the wall, her hair covering her eyes as she said:

"Any*hick*thing, huh? Well..."

Sam looked up, her eyes seemingly glowing as she smirked deviously.

"I think *hick* punishment is in order!"

Naturally, Luna was scared, "P-Punishment?!"

And as Sam did... something to the girl, Tabby ran across the mob of people around the scene, only to gasp in shock once the got the front seat of what Sam had done to Luna.

Luna, realizing she was still alive, opened her eyes and looked around until she saw her neck, which now had a collar with a "Sam's girlfriend" tag attached to it. Before the rocker could wonder what it was, though, Sam turned to the crowd:

"Everybody, listen to me!"

Sam wrapped her arm around Luna's shoulder and pulled her closer.

"I have *hick* brand new girlfriend! And her name is..." one pause later, Sam sheepishly turned to Luna. "What's your name, again?"

Luna started blushing madly, and as she finally realized what the heck just happened, she couldn't help but yell, at the top of her lungs:

"Whaaaaaattt?!"

She yelled it so loud, in fact, Luan managed to hear quite clearly, despite being all the way in her Middle School.

"Good lord, even when we're miles apart, I can still feel like Luna's right next to me!" Luan remarked in exasperation. "But whatever, I need to say focused and find-"

Just then, the comedian spotted a familiar face right around the corner. It was her crush, Benny, who closed his locker just in time to notice the girl approach.

"Hi Luan," the boy greeted with a little smile.

"Hi Benny," Luan calmly greeted in return. "Listen, before you ask about my bandages, something weird happened yesterday that I'd rather not talk about-"

"You tried to pull off a prank and you wound up hitting your head too hard?" the boy quickly answered, tilting his head to the right.

A long silence passed between the duo, and during this silence, Luan couldn't help but think:

" _Actually, now that I think about it, that could work as a legitimate excuse_."

And then she broke to ice, "Anyway, you see, Benny-"

Then the boy repeated, "Anyway, you see, Benny..."

Luan flinched, but couldn't help but giggle as Benny beamed a smile at her. "Is this another one of your mimicry tricks?"

The boy smugly repeated, "Is this another one of your mimicry tricks?"

Luan shook her head. "Yup, it totally is."

Followed by Benny doing the same. "Yup, it totally is."

Luan folded her arms, "Okay, first my words, and now my movements?"

Benny did the same, "Okay, first my words, and now my movements?"

Luan frowned. "Stop it."

Becky repeated, "Stop it."

Luan stomped the ground. "I mean it!"

Benny just mimicked her moves. "I mean it!"

Both teenagers inhaled, and then exhaled a little, before Luan suddenly stated, "You're really good at this."

Benny shrugged and boasted, "Of course, I taught you all you know."

Then they said in unison, "Ha! Got you!"

Only to snap their fingers, also in unison, "Dang it."

"Anyway, speaking seriously now," Luan said, catching the guy's attention. "Have you seen Maggie anywhere around here? I want to see if she's doing okay, and if she'd be willing to let me try make up with her."

Benny sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Again with this, Luan? You want to try and make up with Maggie again?"

The comedian rubbed her arm and wordlessly nodded, making the boy state:

"Listen, I understand; You feel guilty of what happened, and you want to prove that you feel sorry about it. But you have to admit it, the way you want to do it is not the right way."

"So, what you're basically saying's that you don't know where she is?" Luan sheepishly inquired.

Without saying a single word, Benny shook his head and folded his arms before leaving the hallway, leaving behind a worried Luan... whose attention was caught when she felt phone vibrate. Good thing her phone's alarm was way down.

So she took out her phone, saw it was a message from her friend Giggles, and checked it:

"Knock knock."

The comedian's look turned into a "really?" one as she wrote her response:

"Who's there?"

Then came her response:

"Right."

Luan, stunned at the answer, said out loud, "Right who?"

"Right next to you."

The Loud joker jumped and nearly dropped her phone in shock, only managing to catch the object as she realized the one who said that was none other than Giggles, who casually closed and put her phone back on her pockets as Luan shouted:

"How did you do that?!"

"You'll learn eventually, but not right now," the clown girl said matter-of-factly. "Anyway, my "Luan is trying hard to make up for a bad joke" sense were tingling, and I had to come see what's up. Is this about Maggie again?"

Though hesitant to answer, specially seeing how Benny reacted, Luan twiddled her fingers and said, "Yeah, I was hoping Benny would know where Maggie is so I-"

"Luan, Maggie told us at the clown school, right in our faces, that she wanted to be left alone," Giggles folded her arms. "If you were to ask me, she just doesn't feel comfortable enough to try forgive you for what happened, and you trying to force it won't help anybody!"

"I don't know what's more embarrassing, the fact that I'm being scolded by someone dressed up as a clown, or the fact that everything you say's right and I can't really discuss with you," Luan sighed and rubbed her forehead. "What do I do now?"

"The only real thing you can do is leave Maggie alone for now, probably a couple of days, until she is back to her usual self," Giggles walked to her friend and handed her a balloon animal. "Think of Maggie like a balloon animal: If you try too hard to tie up her problems, just like how you tie up a balloon so the air doesn't leave, she's going to burst eventually."

"That's... morbid... but I think I understand," Luan crouched down and hugged the clown girl. "Thanks, Giggles."

Giggles wordlessly returned the hug, and patted Luan's back before telling her, "Now go and enjoy the rest of the day."

The duo separated, Luan nodded, and marched onward down the hallway... while she had a note reading "Throw pies at me anywhere but the head" on her back. Giggles couldn't help but quietly giggle before leaving the school.

And last but not least, at the yard of her Junior High, Lynn stood behind the benches, watching her crush, Francisco, practicing his bat swinging with an air baseball bat.

You know, like a baseball bat, but basically just air.

Lynn took a deep breath of confidence, and walked towards the boy in a "confident" walking cycle, completely missing how Margo and Polly were also on the benches, watching her walk by. Margo got a mischievous look and got up, only to be stopped by Polly grabbing her arm.

"Margo, whatever you're planning to do, I'm pretty sure it's not worth it," Polly sternly stated, earning an annoyed look from her friend. "We both know the kind of trouble you could get if you make Lynn angry."

"Relax, Polly, I'm just going to tease her a little, have a bit of fun," Margo waved her hand in a dismissive manner. "Besides, she needs to learn that she doesn't know her crush as well as she thinks she does."

"You wanna teach her a lesson?" Polly inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Margo nodded, and next thing she knew, Polly released her Margo from her grip.

"Fair enough, as long as it gets through Lynn's thick skull, be my guest," Polly sighed. "Although, what exactly are you going to do?"

Margo snapped her fingers, and a couple seconds later, a pile of papers being held by... something, ran straight to her. And once the tomboy grabbed the papers, the thing holding them prior was revealed.

It was a plush toy bunny that looked a lot like Bun-Bun, but with hair similar to Margo, a red spades symbol on it's cheek, and a red shirt.

One quick look at the papers later, and Margo smirked, "Just what I needed."

Back with Lynn, the girl stopped close to Francisco and waved hello, immediately catching his attention. "Oh, hi Lynn," he amicably greeted.

Lynn blushed and, almost instinctively, clutched her stomach. "H-Hi, Franci-"

Before she could finish, the girl felt an unpleasent feeling in her stomach, and she covered her mouth as she hoped that the feeling would soon go away. However, this didn't stop it from causing the girl to fall to her knees, and feel like she was about to vomit... only for it to stop at the last second.

And Margo stood still and watched it all happen.

"Are you okay, Lynn?" Francisco asked as he helped the girl get up. "S-Should I take you to the nurse's office?"

"No, I'm just... still trying to digest the ham I ate on the way here, since I was running late," Lynn sheepishly rubbed the back of her head with her remaining hand. "You know how time management can be a bit difficult when you have to deal with a large family. But I'm gonna be fine, don't worry."

The shock of the sight wore off, and Margo continued to walk towards the duo, with Polly still remaining back at the bench, hoping things would work out in the end.

"Does that happen often?" Francisco inquired, tilting his head to the right. "Getting up so late you have to run to the school while eating something to not arrive late?"

"Nah, not really, as far as I know," Lynn took a deep breath. "Anyway, Francisco... if you're free some time, maybe we could-"

"Oh hi, Lynn, hi Francisco," Margo casually greeted, carrying a large pile of paper. "Last week's exam results are up, and they tasked me to deliver them to the students, and guess what? I'll deliver both of your tests first!"

Lynn froze in place and turned completely white as Francisco waved hello and said, "Hi Margo, how did we do on the exams?"

The Loud jock turned around in a stilted manner to look at Margo as she quickly checked her and Francisco's results. She then briefly glanced at the stunned athlete, flashing a devious smile before answering:

"Oh, you know, I'm still in the middle, and you're still one of the best, Francisco."

Margo's smile turned into a smug grin.

"After all, there's nothing more valuable in an athlete than an ideal mix of strength and intelligence, wouldn't you agree?"

If Lynn was losing color out of shock before, then she had just lost all and any color she had, leaving her completely white as the boy wordlessly nodded, and Margo took out Lynn's exam results, bringing the jock back to her sense in order to try and stop those results from being revealed. And yet, no matter how hard she tried, Margo dodged her as well as she could before Lynn ultimately pinned Margo on the ground...

...Right next to Francisco, who simply grabbed the results, and whose face went blue in disbelief. And it remained like that as Lynn left Margo, snatched the results away and said, "F-Francisco, I-I-I can explain, honest!"

"Lynn... these results are... not very good," Francisco said, forcing a nervous smile as he handed the results to Lynn, whose face also went blue upon seeing what they were. "Are you just so happening to focus on your brawn more than your brains?"

"N-N-Not in the way you may think!" the jock replied, flailing her arms up and down. "I mean, yeah, I focus a lot of my efforts on my brawn, but I also have a tutor who's helping me focus on training my brains!"

"Who tutors you?" Margo inquired with a smug smile.

Lynn gestured to shush the girl, only to hear Francisco repeat, "Who tutors you?"

"My..." Lynn turned back to the guy, and took a deep breath. "My younger sister."

"The depressed emo poet who's seemingly unable to sound emotional?" Francisco inquired.

"No, the brunette toddler with glasses who also happens to be a genius prodigy!" Lynn hastily corrected, only to lay her head low in shame. "That's not any better, is it?"

"No, it really isn't," Francisco answered, only to get an idea, "But, if you aren't against the idea, maybe I could tutor you someday-"

Lynn blushed and chirped, "I'd love that!"

"Alright, we can discuss when we'll do that later," the boy put his air baseball bat down, "For now, I need to go do something. See ya, Lynn."

Lynn waved goodbye with a smile worthy of an idiot, and Margo giggled to herself as the sports boy left, with Lynn turning to her with an angry look shortly afterwards.

"Why did you make me look like a fool in front of Francisco?!" Lynn hissed, calming down for a moment when she felt a little dizzy on the stomach.

"Lynn, you need to realize that of all people in the team, you're the only one that thinks an athlete should be all muscle and no brains," Margo sternly answered as Polly reunited with the duo. "The quicker you learn that lesson, the faster you can quit acting like you're high and mighty."

Lynn's fury turned into terrified confusion. "W-Wait, I'm the only one? Really?!"

Margo nodded. "W-W-What about Kiki?!"

"She was kicked out for being too stupid, or at least, that's what I heard," Margo nonchalantly answered. "I also heard that she's been practicing karate since then, but I'm not quite sure how true this is. Anyway, you needed to learn a lesson, and that's over with."

Lynn's eye briefly twitched before she clutched her stomach and her face went green. A couple moments later, she covered her mouth and her cheeks became swollen, and she darted off to some bush and hurled inside it as both Polly and Margo looked at the sight with surprise. However, while Margo looked with pure confusion, Polly was horrified.

The skater pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, "You went too far."

Margo turned to Polly and asked, "I went too far?"

"You went too far," Polly ran to Lynn's side. "Come on, Lynn, I'll take you to the nurse's office."

And as the pair went to the nurse's office as quickly as they could, without triggering more stress vomit for Lynn, Margo stood still, looking particularly perplexed as she tilted her head to the left, and her Bun-Bun looked at her with worry.

"How weird, Bun-Bun, I thought that the average "star player" in every city received vigorous training to not hurl in stress, or be affected by stress at all," Margo blurted, only to take a deep breath and walk towards the school. "Oh well, that's in the past now. Come on, we gotta deliver this to the rest of Lynn's classmates as well, and also probably inform the janitor about what happened."

The animate plush bunny put on a look of "Wait, are you serious?" before they shrugged it off and followed the tomboy.

 _Later, at the nurse's office... on the Royal Woods' school..._

Lincoln sat on a bed as the school nurse checked his ears, while Clyde and Ronnie sat at the chairs nearby, the latter with her head down and face covered by her hands.

And seeing that the nurse was none other than her mother, Mrs. Santiago, Ronnie's mood was probably justified.

"I didn't knew your mother was the school nurse," Clyde whispered to the tomboy.

"She wasn't originally, and I was hoping it would stay that way!" Ronnie whined, though quietly enough so she wouldn't be heard by anybody but Clyde. "I mean, it's bad enough that she's breathing on my neck at home, now I have to deal with her in school too? Come on!"

"Alright, Lincoln, the check-up's ready. First of all, take a couple of deep breaths in order to calm down a bit more," Mrs. Santiago stated as she separated from the boy, who raised an eyebrow in confusion.

However, once Mrs. Santiago used gestures and signs to explain herself, the boy obliged and took several heavy breaths. "Now, I'm going to go find you a special object that should help you avoid this problem again, and while I do that, I would like for either you or your friends to tell me what happened."

"We were talking outside when the bell rang, and since he was nearby to hear it, the loud ringing hurt his ears," Clyde explained, twiddling his fingers nervously as he continued. "I managed to cover his ears before it began, but it still hurt him a lot."

"Mhmm..." Mrs. Santiago glanced at Clyde and Ronnie before finding something. "Uh huh, here it is!"

The nurse took out a pair of white earmuffs, and put them on Lincoln's ears. She then helped him get down the bed before guiding him back to Clyde and Ronnie, who helped him stay up.

"Are you feeling okay, Lincoln?" Clyde inquired.

"Don't bother, Nerd-O, the earmuffs will make your voice sound muffled, if they don't outright mute it," Ronnie stated.

"Actually, I can hear Clyde just fine, for some reason," Lincoln said, and the trio promptly threw confused looks at Ronnie's mother. "What's up with these earmuffs, Mrs. Santiago?"

"These are a special type of earmuffs which are designed with the intent to selectively block out loud noises, while allowing much more manageable sound to be heard," Mrs. Santiago explained. "In simpler terms, with these earmuffs, you'll be able to hear anything that won't be considered noise, but anything far too loud loud will be blocked out, and you won't hear anything. Go on, give them a shot."

Clyde walked closer to Lincoln, and shouted, "Lincoln, can you hear me!"

Despite being right next to the boy when he said that, Lincoln simply turned to face Clyde and shook his head with a relieved smile.

"Good, the earmuffs work just fine," Mrs. Santiago walked to and opened the exit for the trio. "Now remember, don't take those off for the rest of the day, and you should recover from the headache soon."

The kids nodded and walked out of the nurse's office, with Mrs. Santiago giving a stern look to Ronnie Anne before closing the door. And then she leaned closer to it and waited for a second until she heard the tomboy shout:

"Everyone! Lincoln and Clyde are boyfriends!"

And as her daughter laughed out loud and Clyde seemingly chased after her, or at least got enraged judging by his growls, Mrs. Santiago pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

 _Meanwhile, with the younger sisters..._

"Mortician's club... mortician's club..." Lucy hummed to herself as she looked around the club doors. "I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be easy to identify for a mortician like me. Granted, I'm just an in-training mortician, but still..."

Lucy needed something to help her calm down after the horrors she saw yesterday. Even if her headache had minimized or even outright vanished, the memories of the things she saw wasn't something that could easily be erased. And so, she had only one option left: Go to Haiku for some help. Sure, she may look as gloomy, if not even more gloomy, than Lucy herself, but Haiku had a motherly side that made Lucy feel comfortable, regardless of the situation.

Her other side was so motherly, in fact, that when Lucy finally found and went into the mortician's club, her yelling at her clubmates looked more like a mother scolding her children-

Wait, what?"

"We've already had this discussion several times before," Haiku sternly scolded her fellow clubmates, putting a hand on her hips as she pointed at a skeleton laying on the ground, which was recently dug out. "Just because you dug out a corpse that was supposedly "underneath the school," that doesn't prove that the school was built on top of an Indian burial ground! The skeleton doesn't even look Indian at all!"

"W-Well, it may not be an Indian corpse," the member with buck teeth said, only to get an idea. "B-B-But maybe, there was a murder in the spot where the school was built, long before it was built!"

"Besides, this is the third skeleton we dug out this week," the bald member added. "How do you explain there being so many skeletons buried under the school, huh?"

"Need I remind you that whenever the skeleton of the science class needs to be replaced, Principal Huggings comes to us in order to help him bury it to get rid of the smell?" Haiku folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. "I mean, take a look at this skeleton for a second, doesn't it look just like the one that needed to be replaced nearly a month ago?"

The members exchanged stunned, perplexed looks.

"See? This is why Lucy's the only member of this club I can take seriously," Haiku bluntly stated, rubbing her forehead as she used her free hand to point at the door. "At least she isn't spouting theories about the dead 24/7! Now take this skeleton back where you found it and bury it again!"

The other club members nodded and grabbed the skeleton before bolting straight out of the room, making sure not to run over Lucy in the process. Once that was done, Lucy went inside and casually asked, "Haiku?"

Haiku herself flinched and turned to look at the girl with worry. "L-L-Lucy! I didn't expect you to come here, what do you need?"

"I was wondering if I could get to hang out with you for a moment, since I need something to help me calm down," Lucy briefly remembered the sights she saw inside her counterpart's sphere, only to shake it off and wave her hand. "But I can tell you about that later, what happened with our clubmates and that skeleton?"

"Oh, it was nothing that you need to worry about Lucy, it was just our clubmates digging out some random corpse by some stranger's orders, because they got convinced it was proof of the school being built on top of an Indian burial ground... again," Haiku pinched the bridge of her nose. "I swear, they can be quite a handful at times. Anyway, you said you needed someone to help you calm down?"

Lucy actually smiled as she walked closer to Haiku, then took out from her back a Princess Pony book. "Please read this to me."

"A-Are you sure about that, Lucy?" Haiku grabbed the book and opened it as she and the young emo sat on top of the club's coffin. "I mean, you usually prefer it when I read it to you on private, and anybody could come in at any moment."

Lucy got off, walked to the door, closed it, then bolted and leaped to Haiku, landing straight on her lap.

"Can you read it now?"

Though surprised at first, Haiku smiled and nodded before she started reading the story to the goth, with Lucy moaning in relief as Haiku used her free hand to brush her hair in a gentle manner. It would be weird for anybody else to see someone like Lucy be so serene and happy, but not Haiku. Seeing Lucy like this was one of the best things she could ever hope for, specially if it helped her in any way.

And as that happened, the twins were walking alongside a large mob of students, both from their age, older, and younger, with Lola waving her hand like she was a member of royalty. Lana wasn't particularly impressed, or amused, at this action.

"Is it really necessary to wave your hand like that?" the plumber inquired, folding her arms. "I mean, we're surrounded by guys! Who's going to even care about the way you wave your hand?!"

"It doesn't hurt to stand out from the rest, dear sister," Lola smugly answered. "And I know you could do that too, but you just so happened to have gotten my looks. It's hard to stand out when you look almost exactly like someone else."

Speaking of standing out, Lola noticed the trio of Ronnie Anne, Clyde, and most importantly Lincoln, among the 5th grade students. "Oh look, there's Lincoln!"

"Lincoln?" Lana chirped. "Where?!"

The twins turned to look at the trio of Lincoln, Ronnie, and Clyde walking alongside their classmates, and the rest of the students. They then basically barged their way closer to the trio, until they were right next to them.

"Hi Lincoln!" Lola cheerfully, and loudly, greeted at the top of her lungs.

This prompted Clyde to answer, "He can't hear you. The earmuffs block out loud noises so it doesn't hurt his ears."

"Hi, Lincoln," Lana greeted with a fairly calm tone of voice.

"Hi, Lana," Lincoln greeted in return. "How have you and Lola been?"

"Just fine, I guess," Lana walked closer to Lincoln and grabbed his arm as she continued, "We were talking with each other about some stuff, but then one of the teachers walked into the room, and then..."

The duo moved a little ahead of everybody else, leaving Lola to stay behind with Ronnie and Clyde.

"Wait a minute, how can he hear Lana, but not me?!" Lola whined. "How do those earmuffs work?!"

"They're a special type of earmuffs that cancel out and mute any noise that would be considered way too loud, but allow more normal or quiet sounds to be heard," Clyde explained to the pageant princess. "Think of it like this: It's not you, it's the earmuffs."

"And also you," Ronnie nonchalantly added.

Clyde threw an angry glare at the tomboy. "Ronnie!"

"Hey, what did you expect me to say? That it was acceptable for her to greet Lame-O as loudly as she did?" Ronnie sternly retorted, returning the angry glare at Clyde. "You can't tell me that she wouldn't have driven him deaf if it wasn't for those earmuffs!"

"True, but still, you can't just say that to a six-year old girl and expect her to just take it!"

"Going from what I heard, Princess-O here, as well the rest of Lame-O's sisters, expect him to just take what they say from time to time," Ronnie narrowed her eyes. "If that's the case, then It's only fair that I expect her to take what Lincoln would've taken in another situation!"

And as the duo continued to heckle and fight like an old married couple, Lola hung her head low, and hope that things would go by quickly.

* * *

- **Next Chapter Preview** -

"Hey everybody, Lola here!"

The scene showed Lincoln, Clyde, Ronnie Anne, and the twins sitting at an auditorium alongside their classmates, while Principal Huggins' got ready to speak. And then two particular figures appeared: Penelope and Chandler.

"If the announcement wasn't enough, then this jerk girl called Penelope certainly made my blood boil!"

Next scene showed Lincoln talking with Ronnie and Clyde about something, before it cut to show the twins at the nurse's office, with Lola being checked by Mrs. Santiago before she seemingly started to narrate something.

"Although, judging by what she seems to be about, maybe I should keep my distance and warn Lincoln about her..."

Back with the trio, Ronnie Anne leaned closer and closer to Clyde, seemingly trying to get him to spill the beans about something, before they were approached by a certain trio: The biker trio.

"Actually, you know what? I'll tell him later! You know why?!"

One of the trio handed Lincoln a pamphlet just as the twins returned, and then threw a glare at them as Lincoln realized something and seemingly freaked out.

"My luck is finally changing! A beauty pageant is coming!"

Lincoln explained his dream to the twins as he showed and put focus on the crown in the pamphlet.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Lola looked at the pamphlet in awe, while Lana sternly folded her arms and said something. And then it showed them walking back home, with Lola looking she was about to scream in joy any second now.

"A Truly Astounding Announcement! Wait, the Crown of My Dream Actually Exists?!"

The final cut showed Leni and Lori looking at somebody as they woke up, with Leni going as far as to wave and say hello.

"Don't miss it!"

The person turned out to be Carol Pingrey, who freaked out and backed away until she clashed with the boiler in the basement.


	8. The Announcement

**Okay, so, I have some explaining to do.**

 **Earlier today, I had to go renew m ID with my father because it expired last year, and in total, it took me around 4-5 hours. Plus, I worked on posting some one-shots ("Conflicted Feelings" and "Harriet's Poem" in Monday, "Comforting Valentine" on Tuesday, and "Valentine Cousins" on Wednesday) and updating "Caste Examination" on Thursday and "Atchiphobia" on Friday.**

 **I had plans to update "Darcy or Family" yesterday, but I lost track of time, so all I got left is today's "Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn" chapter.**

 **Yeah, I've been busy this week. Might take a break. Probably won't, but eh, I've said what needed to be said.**

 **And now, here's the final chapter of the little "filler" period before we head straight into the "Proto-Lola Arc." And don't worry, I'll let you know when the arc begins. ;)**

 **Now, to the reviews!:**

 **1) ChernoMan: Got it. Thanks for the answer. Anyway, as for what you said;**

 *** Yeah, Ronnie and Clyde are interesting because I think diverted quite a lot from their original character, I think. Ronnie's tough in the show, yeah, but she also has a calm and rational side, while Clyde is soft, but also attentive and helpful.**

 **No signs of female dogness or savagery in the canon show, but hey, I had to give Clyde a bone since the rest of the community doesn't seem to want to do that, and I'm certain I can work out Ronnie Anne's cheerful as her simply being happy to be in Royal Woods again. And the female doggyness could also be from Clyde too, I dunno, those two are like a married couple sometimes.**

 ***Issues, ISSUES EVERYWHERE!**

 **2) Nobody245: Well, this, and the last two chapters are breather chapters, yes. Starting next chapter, the "Proto-Lola Arc" will begin!**

 **3) animehero1000: I hope their first impression is good too, buddy.**

 **4) Omega Ultra: If you've seen enough Shoujo/Shounen Anime and or Manga, you'll know how romantic relationships tend to last in those kind of things. Simply put, there will be obstacles.**

 **5) Finnjr63: Yeah, some chapters may feel slower than most, but hey, I gotta work with what I got.**

 **6) Observant Guest: The lovers may appear again, it depends, really. And now, you'll get to see Chandler and Penelope in person! Tremble before their ship teasing! And yeah, I guess it would be cool if there was fan art of this fic. But that might be asking a bit too much.**

 **However, I have drawn some art for it over at my DeviantArt page, Chaoticson, so if anybody's interested, you can go look for it there and see the pics I've posted. There's only characters so far, though, and you may need to surf through pics about other stuff before you find any, just a fair warning.**

 **Also, what do you think of the next chapter previews? Should I change something about them?**

 **And that's it, let's head on with the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 8: A Truly Astounding Announcement! Wait, the Crown of My Dream Actually Exists?!**

* * *

 _Royal Woods school, Auditorium..._

Almost all of the school were sitting on the benches, waiting for the auditorium stage to open up. There was apparently an announcement coming up, and the main trio-as well as the twins-were waiting on the first row of seats. And while everybody else murmured and whispered about their thoughts on this deal, the trio and twins did the same.

"Whatever this announcement is supposed to be, it must be big if we're going to hear it in the auditorium," Lincoln remarked, folding his arms.

"Might just be something like a change on the cafeteria menu," Clyde shrugged and shook his head. "Although, admittedly, the principal would've probably just said so on the PA system or posted the news on the bulletin board instead, and I didn't see any of those things."

"Come on, guys, don't go for something so mundane, think: What would they announce in the middle of an auditorium?" Lola swayed her hair to the right. "They obviously want to announce a new beauty pageant taking place in the school!"

"Ha, yeah, right!" Lana scoffed, earning an angry look from her twin. "Just admit it, Lola, just 'cause you're desperate to take advantage of Lindsey Sweetwater's sudden break from beauty pageants, doesn't mean they're gonna be announced left and right so you can enter and win them."

Lola hissed at Lana and bared her claws like a cat. She stopped once Lana chuckled in amusement at her reaction,and her and the rest of the group's attention was caught when two particular redheads-one girl and one boy-walked past them, then returned to look at the trio of Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, and Clyde.

These two certain someones were Penelope, Clyde's partner during the egg experiment, and Chandler, one of the most popular boys in school.

"Well, hello there, my sweet little Clyde," the redheaded girl greeted, leaning closer to the boy with a sultry look. "Did you miss me? I'm sure you must've missed me."

"Aw, Nerd-O has a girlfriend, how sweet," Ronnie mockingly remarked, earning looks from both Clyde and Penelope. "And how fitting, she's a nerd too! It's kinda sad that she seems to be the one that has the pants in the relationship, though-"

Suddenly, Chandler threw an angry glare at Ronnie, one that was basically ordering the tomboy to shut up, or face the consequences. And surprisingly enough, Ronnie obliged, looking extra worried to boot as the duo then turned their attention towards Lincoln.

"Oh hey, if it isn't my sweet Clyde's friend, your name was Larry, right?" Penelope... somewhat amicably greeted, only to soon notice Lincoln's earmuffs. "What's up with those earmuffs?"

"You see, Penelope, Lincoln got a bad headache yesterday over... something, and the bell's ringing has only made it worse," Clyde explained, catching the redheaded geek girl's attention. "So, when we went to the nurse's office, the school nurse gave Lincoln those special earmuffs that block out loud noises and mute them completely, but allow much manageable sound to be heard."

"That old hag has something like that at her disposal?! Why's she giving it to someone who should be used to loud noises then?" Penelope snapped as she turned to Lincoln, though somehow only the approximate trio-and the twins-seemed to hear her. "I mean, aren't you from the freaking Loud family!? It's even your last name!"

"Um, excuse you, Lincoln's suffering from a headache!" Lola hissed before getting off her seat and stomping her way to Penelope. "Without those earmuffs, he could be at a very high risk of going deaf!"

"Really? Is he really in such a risk?" Penelope mockingly asked, leaning closer and closer to Lola as she added, "If he hasn't been driven deaf by your shrill voice, or your rock sister's music, or your "genius" sister's experiments, or all the other noises in your house..."

Penelope paused, flashed an intimidating smirk, and finished, "Then I don't think he needs those earmuffs."

"And what makes you-"

Suddenly, Penelope grabbed Lola's mouth and forced it shut, causing her to bite her tongue and whine in pain, with the rest of the group coming to Lola's aid as Penelope and a reluctant Chandler ran off to take their seats deep in the back. And though Ronnie tried to chase after the redhead, she couldn't help but be convinced to stay behind thanks to Lola's crying.

"Calm down, Lola, you're about to make a big ruckus if you cry too much," Lana told her twin sister as she and Lincoln covered her mouth. "Seriously, take some deep breaths."

Lola inhaled and exhaled through her nostrils, and after doing it for a couple times, she managed to calm down a little bit. She was clearly still in pain, but at least she didn't look like a whining time bomb.

"Okay, now open your mouth and let's see how's that tongue," Lincoln instructed, and Lola obliged soon afterwards. "Huh, well, the sides of the tongue are red, but that's about it. The middle part of the tongue looks alright."

"Well, that would make sense, she's missing her front teeth, after all," Clyde remarked with a shrug.

And then Lincoln brushed Lola's hair. "Now, this is what we're gonna do: We'll wait until the announcement's over, then we'll take you to the nurse's office, and finally, we'll go home if that's it. Okay?"

Lola turned to Lana, who silently nodded, and Lola turned back and nodded as well before everybody went back to their seats. Lana grabbed Lola's hand, the boys looked at the twins with worry, and Ronnie looked back at her seat to see and throw an angry look at Penelope and Chandler, who were far in the back row of seats. In that moment, Penelope took the chance to mockingly wave at Ronnie with a smug look, which did nothing but fuel the girl's fury.

"Ignore her, Ronnie Anne, she's not worth anybody's time," Clyde sternly told the tomboy, who threw an angry look at him. "Sit back down before she tricks you into getting all of us in trouble."

Though hesitant to oblige, it was a nerd giving her orders after all, Ronnie changed her mind when she saw Lincoln giving her a look that said "Please don't get us in trouble," so she sat down as the curtains went up, revealing Principal Huggins standing up front, with a line up of teachers behind him: Mrs. Shrinivas, Mrs. DiMartino, Coach Pacowski, and Mrs. Johnson.

"Greetings, students. As you can see, we've gathered you all here today to give you a very important announcement," Principal Huggins remarked, taking a pause to take a deep breath before continuing. "With this announcement, we also have some bad and good news, from your point of view."

Murmurs were thrown around the students. How could their teachers even know what they considered "good" and "bad" news? They were complicated entities with equally complex personalities, not just cookie-cutter brats!

They couldn't be read that easily... could they?

And then Principal Huggins spoke once more. "Now, this is what we'll do, we'll start with the announcement, then the bad news, and finally the good news, before dismissing you, okay?"

Some more murmuring was heard among the students, although some were talking with their friends, like the main team.

"You heard that, Lola? We just need to stand a couple of announcements and then we can head to the nurse's office," Lana told her crying twin sister to try and comfort her. "Just hang on for a little longer, okay?"

"Wait, that's it?" Clyde inquired, raising an eyebrow and scratching his chin. "That's weird. If that's all they're gonna say, then why make it such a big deal? Unless..."

"It's about what happened in my backyard yesterday?" Lincoln guessed, catching Clyde and Ronnie's attention.

"Sounds like a bad idea to me," Ronnie remarked with a shrug. "I mean, dropping a bomb about what happened yesterday would freak everyone out."

And as they argued about that stuff, Penelope shared her thoughts with Chandler.

"Being told to go come to auditorium and receive announcements, which is basically being told where to stand and being told how things are gonna be for the future." Penelope remarked, crossing her legs. "Sounds like an average day to me. What about you, Chandler?"

"Sounds like deja vu to me, but I can't quite figure out why," the boy scratched his chin and hummed to himself, before snapping his fingers and throwing a teasing look at the girl. "Oh right, that's pretty much my life since you became a part of it."

Penelope slapped Chandler, who simply laughed it off.

"Something terrible happened yesterday," the principal spoke, before snapping his fingers, somehow making a large screen come down and turn on, revealing images of the partially destroyed main street. "The skies darkened with parts of it oddly colored and a big brawl happened on the main street that left parts of the area devastated."

"Oh right, I saw something about that in the news! Well, my parents did," one of the students remarked just as everybody started murmuring again.

"It was so scary, I think we even saw a car fly away on our way to the main street!" another student exclaimed.

"What the heck could've caused so much damage?" another student questioned in confusion.

"Well, looks like everybody has something to say about what happened," Ronnie remarked as she and the team looked at their murmuring classmates, and other students. "Looks like some are more scared than others."

"Call me crazy, but that sounded like bad news." Clyde asked, scratching his head. "I mean he said announcement, then bad news, and then good news, right?"

"Very informative Huggins, that was quite the announcement!" Penelope mockingly shouted from afar. "Now what's the good and bad news!?"

And as the students started to laugh, the principal stood still, shocked at his very simple mistake, as Mrs. Shrinivas walked forward and said, "It was just a little mistake done by the principal. And besides, any announcement that'll let you know if something dangerous happens is equally as good as following a schedule.

"And now, for the announcement," Mrs. Johnson added as she took the front spot and Shrinivas and the principal went to the other teachers. "Because of the potential danger that could come to the city in the future, we're going to rally up the people in order to up the defenses of Royal Woods, so that we may survive what is to come."

"What's the good news!?" a random student yelled impatiently from his seat.

Mrs. DiMartino dashed and bumped Mrs. Johnson out of her spot as she shouted, "While this is happening, school will be out for a few weeks!"

The entire room was filled with the cheering of the students, and though most of them stood up and raised their arms or otherwise showed their joy rather clearly, the rest remained on their seats and clapped, like Lincoln and Clyde.

"A few weeks without school, huh?" Penelope asked, scratching her chin with a devious look. "Sounds like I'll have a lot of time to think of some devious things to do."

"Perhaps you'll finish your "devious plan" to uncover the existence of aliens," Chandler teased, gently hitting the girl's shoulder. "You may even manage to find one that isn't just a foreigner."

"Shut up!" Penelope yelled before throwing a barrage of slaps at Chandler, who just chuckled as the barrage didn't do any damage to him. "They're real and I'm gonna prove it someday!"

"Geez, what's up with those two?" Lola pondered, somehow listening to the redhead's argument over the cheering. "They almost seem like they were boyfriend and girlfriend, don't they?"

Clyde and Ronnie looked elsewhere to dodge the question, while Lincoln and Lana just shrugged, not knowing what to say.

"That's all we have for today, everyone," Principal Huggins said as he returned to the front stand. "And now, you are dismissed. We'll keep your parents informed in case anything happens. Till then, have a good day!"

The curtains went down, and everybody got off their seats and left, with the team being the last one to leave, but not before Penelope rushed past Ronnie Anne and pushed her to the side. She then blew a kiss at Clyde before Chandler follower her out, and with that, the only people left in the auditorium were the teachers and the principal, who took the chance to relax after the news.

"Well, that's one big weight off my shoulders!" Principal Huggins said as he stretched for a moment. "I'm actually surprised the kids took it as well as they did."

"And you should be grateful that it went as well as it did!" Mrs. Johnson snapped at the principal, making him flinch and take a step back. "Do you know the massive list of things that could've gone wrong!?"

"We could've had a student panic on our hands by telling them what happened! They could've been asking several questions we can't answer no matter how much we wish we could!" Mrs. Shrinivas added, walking to Johnson's side. "This announcement was a very risky move, and it's a miracle that nothing went wrong in the end!"

"Ugh, you guys are so negative!" Mrs. DiMartino whined, getting in between Johnson and Shrinivas and wrapping her arms around their shoulders. "We did the principal's stupid idea, it worked out in our favor in the end, and now all we gotta do is focus on the exams we're gonna put out."

"And also monitor for whatever happens next," Coach Pacowski pointed out, getting everybody's attention. "The progenitors already struck once. They probably will again."

"And worst of all, we have no idea when the next attack will happen," Mrs. Johnson looked at the ground and sighed. "Could be in months, days, heck probably even hours-"

Mrs. DiMartino covered Mrs. Johnson's mouth. "Um, Agnes, that's not something we need to obsess over right now. It's depressing, and isn't a good follow-up to something distressing."

"DiMartino has a point, we just told everybody about the news. Now we have to make sure we do our work properly if we don't want any casualties piling up," the principal stated. "Speaking of working properly, I have to go back to base and check on the analysis. But first, does anybody know how Mr. and Mrs. Loud are doing?"

Mrs. DiMartino smirked. "Oh, trust me, they're doing just fine!"

 _Speaking of Rita and Lynn Sr..._

The Loud patriarch slowly, almost nervously, walked towards a metal door, where he could hear something clashing loudly with the wall. He put his hand over an analyzer thing next to the door, and it opened, allowing him to see what was causing the noise in the first place.

It was his wife, Rita, who banged her forehead against the wall while said forehead was covered in some white crystal matter, which protected the woman's head from damage.

As the crystal shattered and the woman paused to regenerate it, Lynn Sr. walked closer and nervously stuttered:

"H-Hello, honey, h-how are you doing?"

"Just fine, I guess, I'm just trying to remember which crystal is stronger than which," Rita answered without even looking at her husband, before turning the crystal covering into a blue object of sorts. "Is Topaz stronger than Quartz? I can never remember."

"Huh, funny, you usually don't bother to try remember the minerals you can summon," Lynn Sr. folded his arms. "Is it because of what was said at the meeting?"

Rita frowned and banged her head against the wall as hard as she could, causing the crystal to shatter completely as she remembered the computer's stern, blunt words:

" _Your new mission shall be to collect the ingredients necessary to complete your experiment, provided the go-to inquisitors don't arrive by then. However, I have to ask, do you realize the only place you can find the materials you're requesting?_ "

By the time Rita returned to reality, she couldn't help but hug herself and shudder at the thought that would serve as both the answer to the computer's question, and the basis for... well, anybody's nightmare, if they were to ever hear Its name:

"The original reality."

"Yeah, that's... where we're gonna have to go eventually," Lynn Sr. remarked, earning a furious look from his wife in response. "B-B-But look at the bright side: We can just wait until we find something else to replace the ingredients we need-"

"There isn't a useful replacement in this reality for what we need!" Rita snapped, walking back and forth as she explained further. "Literally the only place we can find it is the original reality, and if we go there, we may end up coming face-to-face with the progenitors, and that can only end in disaster!"

Lynn Sr. tilted his head. "If you're so scared of confronting the progenitors, why did you suggest something that would make that likely to happen?"

"I didn't think we were gonna be the ones to go! Especially seeing how we're only a technician and a strategist!" Rita flailed her arms up and down, stopped right on her tracks, and sighed in defeat as she looked at the ground. "I thought they were going to send somebody else to get the things for us!"

Lynn Sr. rolled his eyes as his wife continued to pace back and forth, saying:

"I mean, I'm from Lola's caste, for crying out loud! Pardon the pun. My main attributes are being able to look pretty even in the worst situations, and turning things into shiny gemstones, and you, as part of Luan's caste, can use puns to your advantage, but those advantages aren't enough to survive in an environment as hostile as the original reality!"

The Loud patriarch walked to his wife's side and put a hand on her shoulder as he said, "We'll find a way to get through this."

Rita hugged her husband as tightly as she could, and he returned the hug after she said, with evident terror in her tone:

"I hope so..."

 _Back at the school..._

Lana and Lola followed Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, and Clyde as they walked towards the exit, paying no attention to their nearby classmates. Hey, at least they managed to avoid seeing Penelope and Chandler's ugly mugs again.

"Hey, Lincoln, Lola and I are going to the nurse's office," Lana told her older brother before looking at Lola with concern. "Just to be sure."

Lincoln smiled and nodded. "Alright, but go back home once you finish, okay?"

The twins ran off, and Lincoln took the chance to catch the duo's attention, "So, can I ask you two something?"

Clyde smiled and nodded. "Sure, I don't see why not."

Ronnie rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. "Go ahead, Lame-O."

And then came Lincoln's question:

"So, have you two met Chandler and Penelope before? Or in Clyde's case, ever seen them again since met them?"

The duo flinched and exchanged worried looks, not sure how to answer the boy's question. Well, they did know some answers they could give, but what answer Lincoln was looking for, that was a mystery.

"In terms of Chandler, I didn't see him again ever after the "freeload overloard" incident, and I was hoping it would remain that way," Clyde looked elsewhere and sighed. "But yeah, I've met Penelope before. In fact, I tend to hang around with her whenever her partner in crime isn't available."

Ronnie, meanwhile, also looked away and twiddled her fingers. "Yeah... we met before... a-and that's all I'm willing to talk about!"

"It's a bit of a coincidence that you two have history with redheads, don't you think?" Lincoln chuckled. "Now that I think about it, though, didn't I have some history with a redhead too? What was her name?"

The boy thought about it for a moment, and he immediately remembered a certain redheaded girl.

"Cristina!"

Ronnie and Clyde stopped on their tracks and turned back to Lincoln, with Clyde looking a bit worried, while Ronnie looked confused.

"Oh right, your former crush," Clyde twiddled his fingers awkwardly. "Are you still upset over the fact she changed to another school after the video contest incident?"

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Ronnie inquired, catching both guys' attention. "She didn't change schools, she outright went missing. At least, that's what I heard."

"Whatever happened with her, she hasn't shown up for months, and nobody knows where she's gone," Lincoln frowned and looked at the ceiling. "I wonder if she's doing okay, wherever she is."

And then, Clyde bluntly inquired to Ronnie:

"What's your relationship with Chandler?"

Ronnie's cheeks blushed as red as a tomato as the girl flinched, then looked at her surroundings.

"I-It's not a big deal, really, we weren't that close back then," Ronnie nervously answered, rubbing the back of her head. "He came to my side when I was feeling down, helped me get over what was bothering me, and he taught me how to bully people so they would leave me alone."

"So it's thanks to Chandler that you became a bully?" Lincoln asked, earning a nod from Ronnie. "Well, did you learn everything from him?"

"Of course not! I learned the basics from him, and from then on, I practically went the self-taught route!" Ronnie proudly boasted, before smugly pointing at Clyde. "Now's my turn! What's your relationship with that Penelope nerd?!"

Clyde frowned and sighed. "Penelope's one of my and Lincoln's classmates, and we were a couple during the egg experiment over a year ago."

"Oh yeah, I remember that experiment, Lame-O and I were partners in it as well," Ronnie scratched her chin. "We didn't meet that often afterwards, though, did the same happen with you and Red-O?"

Clyde got ready to answer, but then thought about something and closed his eyes, looked elsewhere and folded his arms with a stern look.

"You know what? I'm not telling you what happened between us afterwards," the boy growled with a determined tone. "You'll just make things worse."

The Hispanic tomboy threw an angry glare at Clyde. "Tell me!"

The boy just ignored the girl and stated, "No."

Ronnie leaned closer. "Come on, Nerd-O, tell me!"

This time, Clyde turned to Ronnie and returned the glare. "I said no!"

And so, the dark-skinned geek and Hispanic tomboy's argument devolved into Ronnie shouting "Tell me!" repeatedly in time for Clyde to repeatedly answer "no!", all while the two flailed their arms up and down.

"Hahaha, geez, something tells me I should wear these earmuffs whenever I'm with you two," Lincoln quipped, with the duo being too engrossed on snapping at each other to notice.

And then, just as the trio continued to walk, they were stopped by three particular girls, wearing pink bicycles. And as Lincoln looked at them and slowly but surely realized who they were, the leader of the girls smiled and said:

"Nice to see you again, Sweet Feet."

 _Meanwhile, at the nurse's office..._

The twins barged into the office, catching Mrs. Santiago's attention.

"Mrs. Ronnie Anne's Mom! Mrs. Ronnie Anne's Mom!" Lana shouted as she and Lola ran towards the woman. "Please, you have to help us! My sister's in serious need of your help!"

"Are my eyes deceiving me? There's an injured student that's not Lincoln?!" Mrs. Santiago said in surprise and amazement, earning a nod from the tomboyish twin. "W-Well, what's the problem?"

Lana opened Lola's mouth and Lola took out her tongue as Lana shouted, "She bit her tongue really hard!"

Mrs. Santiago was obviously not amused by the big fuzz being made about this relatively minor injury, so she just sighed and rubbed her forehead. She then guided the twins to the bed, and sat with them there.

"Okay, that doesn't sound bad, but I will check to be sure," Mrs. Santiago took out a flashlight. "Now, let's see if her tongue went through any major damage."

Lola opened her mouth again and took out her tongue. The nurse aimed the flashlight at it and turned it on as she asked, "So, while I check your sister's tongue, how about you tell me what exactly made her bite it? I mean, my intuition tells me she bit it while talking really fast, but-"

"Actually, that's not what happened," Lana stated, sounding annoyed at the nurse's idea. "We were in the auditorium, and the announcement was about to happen, when some redheaded girl named Penelope-"

"Penelope? The new top bully in the school?!" Mrs. Santiago exclaimed in disbelief. "If that's the Penelope you're talking about, then you two are lucky that's all she did to you!"

"Top bully in the school?" Lana repeated, partially curious, partially... worried. "She seemed more like Clyde-class nerd than a bully to me, no offense to her of course."

"Yes, she was originally just a normal girl with some decent grades," Mrs. Santiago started as she focused a bit more on Lola's tongue. "She was also one of the most frequent victims of bullying in the school, despite being the daughter of one of the teachers, Mrs. Johnson."

Lola mumbled something, which Lana managed to translate as, "She's the daughter of my brother's teacher?"

"Well, there are rumors that she's Johnson's daughter, but neither Johnson nor Penelope have ever confirmed or denied those rumors, and they don't seem interested in doing that anytime soon," Mrs. Santiago shrugged. "Anyway, as I was saying, she was originally just a bullying victim, until one day, she rose up."

Suddenly, Mrs. Santiago remembered the time of Penelope's rising, which was for some reason represented as dolls. In the scene, Penelope, alongside several other nerdy figures, suddenly broke through the ground where several "bullies", including Chandler stood on.

"They just, came out of nowhere, and the local bullies had no way to fight back."

The scene changed, and this time, Penelope pointed at the bullies as her goons basically overpowered them somehow.

"As in, they could fight back, but while they had brute strength, Penelope and her goons had both smarts and creativity."

The scene changed again, and Penelope and a figure that looked like Clyde stood in front of a downed Chandler, the girl sporting a malicious smirk.

"Eventually, they managed to strike fear in all bullies, and forced them to serve her in exchange for not facing her wrath any further."

One final scene came next, showing Penelope with the Clyde-like figure and Chandler by her left and right respectively.

"And she eventually rose to the rank of the queen of all bullies."

Mrs. Santiago returned to reality, and saw she was about to shove the flashlight down Lola's throat, with Lana trying to stop her from doing so. The woman then took out the flashlight and turned it off before saying, "Sorry, I got sidetracked there."

The nurse then closed Lola's mouth and helped the duo get off the bed as she said, "Okay, I checked your sister's tongue, all I can say is that she better avoid any hot, spicy, or any other food that hasn't cooled off, rinse it with warm salt water, apply something cold to the bitten area, and most importantly, give it time to heal, and make sure not to talk too fast."

"Got it, thanks a lot Mrs. Ronnie Anne's Mom!" Lana said before grabbing and turning to Lola's side. "Now come on, Lola, we gotta tell everybody about what she told us!"

The twins ran off to tell everybody, and as they left, the nurse couldn't help but ponder, "They're just gonna call me "Mrs. Ronnie Anne's Mom" from now on, won't they?"

 _Back with the trio..._

Lincoln took a step towards the biker girls as they got off their bicycles. "It's you... I didn't think I'd see you again."

"See you again?" Ronnie repeated with surprise. "As in, you've met them before?"

"Yeah, but our meeting wasn't that big of a deal, really," Lincoln answered, shrugging with a nervous smile. "One day, I took Lynn's bike for something, it got stolen by somebody, and I met these three girls while I was using the bike I originally got from Lori and was looking for a bike gang to join with."

"Till this day, we still have no idea who stole the bike," Clyde remarked, folding his arms and shaking his head sternly. "My parents found it, but they didn't find whoever stole it."

"Unless your parents are detectives or have a similar occupation, I don't see how they could've caught them," Ronnie shrugged. "I mean, as long as you got the bike back, shouldn't everything be okay? That stuff was months ago after all, right?"

"Well, everything did turn out okay, but still, the fact whoever stole the bike could still be out there makes me worry about them probably striking again..." Lincoln then remembered the biker trio and turned back to them. "Anyway, we're getting a bit sidetracked. So... um, what are your names?"

The girl with a pink shirt with a purple heart pulled a peace sign and winked, "I'm Cindy!"

Then, the slightly dark-skinned girl with curly hair and calmly said, "I'm Mindy."

Finally, the girl with long, brown hair swayed said hair to the left and excitedly answered, "And I'm Ronnie!"

"Okay, stop it right where the last one said her name," Ronnie Anne stated, stepping in towards the biker trio, who threw annoyed glares at her. "I'm also named Ronnie, so in order to avoid confusion, you're gonna have to be called something else."

The biker Ronnie got off her bicycle and smiled. "Well, then, we can do something about that."

Suddenly, the biker leaped up, raised her bicycle, and promptly smacked Ronnie Anne with it hard enough to send her tumbling back to Clyde's arms. And as the biker Ronnie put her vehicle down and got on top of it, her partners and even Lincoln stood still with shocked looks.

"Ronnie, why did you do that?!" Mindy snapped at the brunette, who rolled her eyes. "We were told not to get in any trouble, remember!"

"And what did you expect me to do? Let her interrupt our meeting with Sweet Feet?" the biker Ronnie asked in return, sternly folding her arms. "We were also told to get aggressive if it was necessary, and seeing who came up, it was totally necessary!"

"Am I hallucinating, or did that little brat seriously just hit me with her freaking bicycle?!" Ronnie snapped as she rubbed her hurt cheek, only to take a more serious tone as she turned to Clyde. "I'm asking for real, I have no idea what just happened there."

Clyde smugly smiled and said, "Yup, she did just hit you with her bicycle."

"Okay, that's my cue that I've had enough for today," Ronnie freed herself from Clyde's gasp and gently hit Lincoln in the shoulder. "See you later, or tomorrow, or whatever Lame-O, I'm going home."

"I'll go home too," Clyde added as he followed Ronnie to the exit. "I'm sure my parents would like to know about what happened."

"Alright guys, goodbye, have a safe trip home," Lincoln said, waving goodbye to Ronnie and Clyde as they left. And once they were out of sight, he turned back to the biker trio and crouched down. "So, what are you three doing here?"

"Well, we decided to come check up on you and make sure you were okay," Cindy answered, playing with her hair as she looked elsewhere. "Just because you never accepted our offer to become our leader, doesn't mean you never denied it, right?"

"Also, Cindy totally has a crush on you," Mindy bluntly stated with a smug smile.

The girl flinched and slapped her friend, shouting "Mindy!" as she blushed.

"And also, we were approached by a... friend, of sorts, who gave us the job to pass these pamphlets around the school," Biker Ronnie answered before taking out and handing the boy a pamphlet. "And she also mentioned that it didn't have to only be people that look like they would participate, and you were the first person we could think of."

The boy read the pamphlet just as the twins arrived to his side, and he focused solely on the pamphlet's content as the twins tried to get his attention and the biker girls looked at them as if to say, "Don't mess with him, you'll regret it."

"Wait a minute..." Lincoln snatched the pamphlet and took a closer look at it. "Wait a minute!"

"What's wrong, Lincoln?" Lana asked, finally returning Lincoln to reality. "Did something happen?"

"I was handed this pamphlet about a beauty pageant from my three biker toddler followers over here-long story-and look at this!" Lincoln showed the pamphlet up close to the twins, and pointed at the crown. "I saw this crown once in a dream!"

Lola's eyes shined as she stole the pamphlet and took a closer look at it, while Lana simply asked, "You saw that crown in a dream once? Are you sure?"

"Yes, absolutely, there's no doubt about it!" Lincoln answered, folding his arms as he tried to remember. "I was in the middle of some black void, and then the crown materialized out of nowhere, and somehow I wound up in a room with-"

The boy blushed as he remembered how the rest of the dream went, and how it probably wouldn't be the best idea to tell the twins what exactly happened.

This didn't stop Lana from asking, "Then what?"

"W-Well, the dream gets kinda weird after the crown appears," Lincoln looked elsewhere and brushed the back of his head. "I'm sure you don't want to hear about that, though, right?"

Lola just continued to look at the pamphlet as Lana folded her arms and sternly said, "Lincoln, you already told us you saw the crown in a dream, the least you could do is explain to us why it's important that the crown you saw in your dream, also happens to exist for real."

"Well, if he's going to do that, then you may as well wait until you go back home," Biker Ronnie growled at the twins, reminding the Loud trio that they were still there. "You can't just expect Sweet Feet to bend down to your will and do whatever you want! Anyway, we're gonna go pass around some more pamphlets. Goodbye, Sweet Feet!"

With that said, the biker trio rode off to deliver more stuff before the Loud trio decided to walk home, Lana and Lola holding Lincoln's hands as they left the school. And as they walked, Lola looked at the pamphlet while looking like she was going to scream in delight any second now.

"Is Lola going to be okay?" Lincoln whispered to the animal lover.

"Yeah, you know how excited she gets when it comes to beauty pageants," Lana rolled her eyes and sighed. "Trust me, when we get back home, she'll return to reality... I hope. And hey, if she doesn't do that, we can always ask Lori or Leni to bring her out of her trance."

"Now that you mention them, I wonder what they're up to." Lincoln pondered.

 _Meanwhile, at the Loud basement..._

An unknown person slowly opened their eyes as they regained consciousness, with the first thing they saw-after their vision was no longer blurry of course-being a nervous Lori and Leni standing in front of them.

"See? I told you she'd wake up eventually," Leni told Lori, brushing her older sister's hair. "It took her a whole day, but still."

Lori just threw an annoyed look at Leni before turning back to the person and saying, "Good morning, Carol."

The person, now revealed to be Carol Pingrey, sprung up and backed away until she crashed with a large metallic thing, with the impact sound echoing in the basement for a moment. Once the sound was gone, Carol screamed and started throwing questions:

"What happened?! Where are the champions?! Did the progenitors enter our world?! Are the rest of your siblings okay? Do Gra-I mean, Mrs. and Mr. Loud know about whatever happened?!"

Carol got up, and took a look at herself, only to see that, besides blue bra and panties, the only thing she was wearing was... a bedsheet ghost costume, with some straps lazily added in. The spots where the eyes would be weren't even covered up!

Carol calmed down a little, though mostly out of confusion. "And why am I wearing a bedsheet ghost's corpse?"

"Lori wouldn't let me put her clothes on you, and I didn't think my own clothing would fit you, so that was the only thing I could think of," Leni sheepishly admitted, scratching the back of her head. "If I get another choice, or if your clothes finish washing faster than I thought, I'll let you know, honest."

"As for your questions, we'll play the 20 questions game with you later," Lori stated before walking to Carol, and sat down. "Right now, however, we have a little deal to make with you."

Carol frowned and looked at Leni, who looked elsewhere as she somberly nodded. She then turned back to Lori, who's look made it clear she wasn't going to stand any nonsense from her. And so, Carol swallowed her fears and asked:

"What deal are we talking about?"

- **Next Chapter Preview** -

"Hey everybody, Lola here!"

As Lola spoke, scenes of Lucy and Lynn looking through the attic, and the other sisters resting at the living room were shown. Then Lola, Lana, and Lincoln arrived, and the diva tried to speak with her sisters.

"Just my luck, I have an important thing to say,"

However, as the next scene showed, Luna spoke with Lola, and mere moments later, the diva was yelling as Luna and Lori exchanged glares, with Luan hiding behind Luna for good measure.

"And yet everybody isn't paying attention to me! Unbelievable!"

Next scene showed Lola and Lincoln walking towards the bizarre sight the other sisters covered: It was Carol, playing poker with Charles, while the other Loud pets watched them nearby.

"Oh well, looks like Lori and Leni have something to say about this Carol girl..."

Lori and Leni explain something, and everybody looked puzzled by the explanation, except for Carol, who dropped her cards, and Lola, who snapped soon afterwards.

"Wait a minute... she's going to be our new what-now?!"

As Lola said the next, the scene showed Carol put two fingers on Lola's mouth, then slowly went "sh" before telling her to shut up, prompting the diva to stomp her way back upstairs.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Lori ordered the sisters to leave and the siblings left, but Lana remained behind and spoke with Carol before eagerly sitting down.

"A Big Announcement From Lola! Meet Your New Mentor, Carol Pingrey!"

Lana and Carol spoke a bit more, and the tomboy narrowed her eyes and bluntly answered before the scene changed, showing Lincoln going inside Lola and Lana's bedroom, while Lola was having a tea party.

"Don't miss it!"

The last scene showed Lincoln and the other sisters at the living room, with Lola going downstairs. Then, she went to Lincoln, and then took a deep breath as she took out the pamphlet...


	9. New Mentor

**NEW ARC STARTS NOW! XD**

 **That's right, Loudies and GentleMcBrides! A new story arc in "Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn" is finally here! Join the Loud siblings, Lola in particular, as they come face to face with the first Progenitor to strike after the... beating, the sisters got in the intro arc. And I hope you enjo** **y it, 'cause we might be here for a while. XD**

 **I'd like to give a shout-out to A Hopeful Observer, who added a rather neat bit of dialogue in this chapter that I think you guys will like. I won't spoil what it is, but it's about Lori and the other siblings.**

 **1) Omega Ultra: Yeeeeaaaaah... that might be an issue later on. XD**

 **2) Nobody245:**

 *** Of those three, Chandler will play a role later in a later arc, hopefully, while Penelope will play a slightly antagonistic role. The Biker Trio will mostly be just there until Proto-Lily comes into play.**

 *** Clyde's role... he's a strategist, not a fighter. Now, if you meant his story arc, he'll try to be a bit more active in the current business. That's the best way I can put it XD**

 **3) animehero1000: And fun to write too! And yeah, Lynn Sr.'s the technician, and Rita's the strategist.**

 **4) Observant Guest: Let's just say this Penelope's been through a bit, so, she's fairly grumpy in general. What's up with her will be revealed later. As for Chandler, he and Ronnie Anne have some story together, which, again, will be revealed later. And yeah, Cristina's been absent for a while, I wonder why...**

 **5) Hatoralo:**

 *** Chandler's more of a companion to Penelope, a grumpy one at that.**

 *** I must've messed up that part or something like it, then, because an earlier chapter stated Lynn Sr. is in Luan's caste (So he has a flower-shaped birthmark) while Rita's in Lola's caste (Diamond-shaped birthmark).**

 **** You mean like in the original reality? Yeeeaaaahhh... Lincoln took that ability away from every one of the neophilim, including him.**

 *** I'll be sure to try keep the subplots and mysteries manageable.**

 **6) ChernoMan:**

 *** Yeah, poor Ronnie.**

 *** Chandler's not a bully, just a companion, and yes, Penelope's quite rough around the edges. But she has a reason to be like that.**

 *** It's okay, I understand.**

 **Finally, not only did this story gain a new fav and follow yesterday from "TheCartoonist294", but both the original version fo the story and Divinity Reborn, have been featured in the "Loud House Hall of Fame Fanfics" community. Ain't that a shocker?**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 9: A Big Announcement From Lola! Meet Your New Mentor, Carol Pingrey!**

* * *

 _At the Loud attic..._

Boxes were thrown around as Lucy and Lynn looked all over the attic, hoping to find anything that could help them get the answers Lori and Leni wouldn't give them. Although, Lucy was the one that was looking everywhere for answers, Lynn just checked the boxes with a bored look.

"Have you found anything yet, Lynn?" Lucy asked as she opened yet another box... and fell silent.

"Lucy, I said this before, and I'll say it again, the attic is probably the last place where we're going to find the answers we're looking for!" Lynn answered in exasperation. "I mean, I haven't found any answer yet, what about you?"

Lucy remained silent for a moment, staring at the thing she just found inside the box: A book titled "Ars Loudia" with a picture of what looked like demonic counterparts to the sisters' lookalikes. Lucy then answered, without taking her eyes off the book:

"No, I haven't found anything either, but it wouldn't hurt to look around a bit more, right?"

Another box was thrown as Lynn shouted, "Maybe not for you, but I got better things to do than waste my time trying to find something that probably not even here! Good luck with your search, though!"

Lucy responded "thanks!" back before she grabbed the book and hid it under her dress. She then took a look to her left and right before leaving the attic... just in time for a shadow that looked like her to loom over the ceiling, sporting a wide smile.

 _Meanwhile, downstairs..._

The majority of the family were busy dealing with their own stuff, except for Lori and Leni, who were absent, and Lucy and Lynn, who were just coming downstairs, when Lola, Lana, and Lincoln came in, the diva separating from the other two and got on top of the table.

"Everybody, we got amazing news!" Lola exclaimed at the top of her lungs, getting her siblings' attention, but annoying them in the process. "Lincoln just found out something incredible, and-"

"Lola, if you're excited for something, then It's clearly something only you care about," Lynn sternly stated, getting the diva to shut up eventually. "And get off the table, that's where we rest our feet!"

The diva blew a raspberry at the jock and jumped off the table, just in time for Lori and Leni to arrive from the basement. This immediately caught everybody's attention, as they ran to the duo right past Lola, who recovered her composure before joining the rest.

"Hello everybody, how did your day go?" Leni greeted, backing away a little.

"Lot of weird stuff went down today that I'm not even sure if it's real," Luna sighed, grabbing her head as Luan nodded in agreement. "I mean, Sam made me her girlfriend, Luan says she was attacked by pies at the school, Lynn's terrible grade made her look like a fool in front of her crush-"

"Hey!" Lynn shouted.

"Things just escalated after that; People asked us about the bandages, if we knew what happened yesterday, and in fact, a lot of them seemed really scared about what happened," Luna sighed and put her hands on Lori's shoulders. "Please tell us were aren't the only ones dealing with this, we can't be the only ones having bogus days!"

Lori promptly slapped Luna's arms away and sternly said, "Just because you had a weird, stressful day, doesn't mean you can make us uncomfortable, okay?! Our day was just as bad as yours!"

Luna glared at Lori, while Luan hid behind her. As everything happened, Lola could be heard complaining stuff like "Hey, what about me?!" in the background, although she was still being ignored.

"Besides we also have something to show you," Lori added, before pausing, exchanging a look with Leni, then adding, "Or more literally, someone. Follow us, and watch your step."

Everybody exchanged looks, then followed the duo into the basement, except for Lincoln and Lana, who were stopped by Lola.

"Have you forgotten what we came here for?!" Lola took out the pamphlet and pointed at it. "We need to tell everybody about the beauty pageant and what the crown reminded you of! Are you seriously just going to do what Lori says?!"

"She and Leni, are in charge while Mom and Dad are away, and you know that like the rest of us," Lincoln answered, folding his arms as Lola flinched and looked surprised at the guy actually answering back. "Besides, whether the beauty pageant is important or not, we can't just ignore Lori."

"Basically, you have to wait before everybody has to put up with your pageant hysteria," Lana scolded, taking a step forward. "So follow the others if you don't want Lori shutting you down!"

"Are you guys coming or not!?" Lori yelled from the basement.

Lola jumped and looked at the basement, before turning back to see Lincoln looking at her with worry, and Lana doing the same, but with anger. And so, trying to feign annoyance, Lola scrunched her face and went down the basement, before being followed by Lincoln and Lana.

Once the trio were down in the basement, they were met with Leni, who held the twins' hands as she said, "Finally you're here, Lori was wondering what was taking you so long."

"Well, there's the fact that she took everyone's attention away from us while I was in the middle of telling them something important," Lola showed the pamphlet to Leni. "You see, there's a beauty pageant and-"

Leni took a quick look at the pamphlet before saying, "Okay then, we'll let you tell everybody about your stuff after we introduce you to a certain someone, so please, wait until then, okay?"

The diva sighed, saved the pamphlet on her pocket, and the trio followed Leni to the end of the basement, where they saw everybody-and Lori-surrounding whoever Lori said they wanted to show them.

Lincoln took a step forward as the twins separated from Leni, and the three barged through their sisters to see... Carol Pingrey, still dressed in a bedsheet ghost's corpse, playing poker with the pets, primarily Charles. And she didn't stop even after being noticing everybody looking at her.

"So, uh, what's going on?" Lincoln asked.

"That's what I'd like to know. I mean, who is this... lady?" Luna inquired, scratching her chin as she took a closer look at Carol's body. "And why is she so... shapely? Is she an adult or something?"

"This is Carol Pingrey, a girl from my class we found unconscious after the incident at the main street," Lori bluntly answered as she walked to Carol's side, then put a hand on her shoulder. "So Leni and I decided to take care of her here so she could rest without the danger of being attacked or worse out on the streets."

"And she hasn't lost to Charles in poker yet? That's impressive," Lana remarked, taking a step forward as everybody turned to look at her... and in Lola's case, she had a baffled expression. "Either she's a pretty good poker player, or Charles has lost his touch, 'cause he's really good at it. If Lisa were here, she'd agree with me."

"Now that you mention her, where is Lisa?" Lincoln inquired before turning to Leni. "Is she with Lily in her bedroom?"

"She was in her room for a couple hours this morning, but she decided to go work on some stuff in her underground lab," Leni casually explained with a calm smile. "She took Lily with her, though, so you don't need to worry about her being left alone."

Lincoln rubbed his forehead. "Now I'm worried about Lily being with Lisa in her laboratory, though."

"Oh, Lincoln, don't worry about Lisa," Leni chuckled, then put up a shifty look as she stated, "I made sure she didn't get any funny ideas."

 _Meanwhile, with Lisa..._

The little scientist tried to work on her Royal Woodroid 5000 robot, with Lily sleeping on a baby crib nearby. The laboratory looked pretty much the same, the only difference being that there were several eyeball-like... things, flying around, with two in particular focusing on Lisa and Lily: one was taking a look at the sleeping Lily, while the other one looked at Lisa as she worked.

Lisa briefly looked away from her work, only for her gaze to wind up meeting her flying eyeball watched, and though it didn't do anything... yet, the scientist instantly went back to work while thinking:

" _I'm amazed I'm frightened of these levitating, ocular monstrosities. After all, I'm well aware they're just illusions._ "

 _Back at the basement..._

Leni sighed and returned to her cheerful mood. "I'm sure Lily's safe."

"Alright then, we should definitely get the most important questions out of the way," Luna started before turning to Carol and asking, "So question number one: Are you a Loud?"

Carol tilted her head and asked in return, "Allowed to do what?"

Luna flinched and Luan stiffed a laughter behind her back before the rocker corrected, "No no no, I was asking if you were part of our family. The Loud family."

"They're asking because you do kinda look like you'd be one of our family members," Leni explained. "But last time we assumed someone was one of our family members, it... didn't end so well, so they wanna make sure they don't jump into any conclusions, though I don't know how you could jump onto one of those things."

"...Maybe I'm a Loud?" Carol looked at the ceiling, and scratched her head as she added, "It's kinda complicated on my end, so I'd rather not give you a specific answer until I know what's going on."

"Fair enough, we won't force you to think about it," Luna snapped her fingers, bringing Carol back to reality. "For now, let's just assume you're a Loud by proxy. Don't ask what those are, by the way."

Carol remained silent until Luan eventually whispered to her, "This is the part where you ask about it."

"Okay, you two had enough," Lori sternly stated as she grabbed Luna and Luan by the neck of their shirts and pulled them away. "Can we go back to the literally important topic before anybody else starts asking dumb questions!? We didn't just bring Carol here so she could answers questions and play poker with our pets."

"I wouldn't mind if that was the case, though," Carol chuckled. "Specially since this dog's the best opponent I've had in years."

Luan held back her laughter, "Did I seriously just hear that?"

"Back on topic!" Lori yelled, getting everybody's attention. She then put a hand on Carol's shoulder as she said, "As you already know, we tried to train you so you could learn how to control your powers, and... it wasn't long before things went out of control."

"Please don't remind us," Lynn rolled her eyes and folded her arms. "Seriously, just don't."

"We won't, however, we do have some bad news that we must tell you," Leni said as she walked to Lori's side. "Ever since that incident, some more business has popped up for us, so we're going to be too busy to continue being your trainers-"

"Wait a minute, let me see if I got this straight," Lynn exclaimed, taking a couple of steps forward towards the duo, getting in the middle of Carol and Charles' game in the process. "First Mom and Dad leave for work stuff we don't know anything about, and now you'll be too busy to train us!? What's next, are you gonna leave the house!?"

"Of course not!" Lori replied while Leni thought about it and Carol and Charles threw angry glares at Lynn. "We'll still be here, we just won't be able to train you, that's what Carol will do instead!"

The rest of that sentence died in Lori's mouth when she realized something important: she never asked her siblings if they even wanted to continue training.

Unsure where to go from there Lori looked to Leni. The younger sister gave Lori a look that told she what she knew she had to do. Taking a deep breath she asked the important question that made knots of anxiety in her stomach.

"Do you guys still want to learn how to use your powers?," Lori inquired as she scanned her siblings faces for anything that showed doubt. "I know what happened yesterday was literally traumatic and maybe some of you don't want to train after all. Don't misunderstand me, the progenitors will attack again. But it's your decision to train and get stronger."

Lori closed her eyes and took another breath, "So...literally choose now."

The younger siblings took in Lori's words and looked to one another. What happened yesterday left them rattled for sure. From getting their butts kicked to having the progenitors messing with their minds. Any normal person would have run from that madness. But, the Loud siblings were not normal, were they? Dealing with craziness was an everyday activity for them.

With that realization in their hearts and natural competitive spirit driving them even further, each of them gave their answer:

"Do you even have to ask?" Lynn said with a smirk and her arms crossed "I'm not losing to some knock-off."

"Next time we clash, I will show my doppelganger the terror of real darkness," Lucy promised, slight confidence in her tone.

"I meant what I said yesterday brah, WE WILL ROCK THEM," Luna proclaimed as she balled her fists.

"You know what they say, a copy is never as good as the original," Luan said as she giggled. "But, seriously I'm in."

"I don't need another twin, Lana is more than enough," said Lola.

"Yeah what she said," Lana agreed as she pointed her thumb to Lola.

Lincoln felt unsure about all this. But seeing his sisters look so confident he knew what he had to do, "You can count me in too."

After hearing everyone's answers Lori felt somewhat better about what she said earlier. As everyone came down from the high of their proclamations they remembered what they were talking about before. None more so than Lola remembered what was going on, and her anger surged again.

"Alright, this has gone too far!" the diva shouted at the top of her lungs before barging to Lynn's side and pushing her to the side. "First everybody ignores me when I have something to tell them, then you introduce us this weird lady here who you say you and Leni rescued, then Leni tells us you two have something else to do, and now you're telling us this weird lady we just met is going to train us instead of you!? Are you out of your mind!? This is-"

Before the girl could go any further, Carol put two fingers on her mouth, slowly made the "sh" sound and dragged it out until Lola seemingly calmed down, then immediately finished:

"Lower your voice. No need to lose it just to complain."

Once Carol took her fingers off her mouth, Lola frowned, swayed her hair to the right, then stomped her way back upstairs, with everybody watching her as she left. Some with anger, like Carol and Lynn, and some with worry, like Lana, Lincoln, and Luan.

"Geez, she's usually a bit less grumpy than this," Leni said with a worried tone before turning to Lincoln. "Did she have a bad day?"

"We'll explain everything later," Lincoln answered before turning to Carol. "So, to recap, you're busy, so Carol's our new teacher? Okay, I think we need to learn more about her before anybody's okay with the idea, right?"

The sisters nodded, until Lucy remarked, "However, I think it would be better if we relaxed a bit more before we learn more about her. After today and yesterday I could use some more rest."

"I gotta agree with Lucy on this one," Lynn stated, folding her arms. "Last 48 hours has left everyone pretty drained."

"Good call," Carol added, nodding in agreement as she got everybody's attention. "Resting as much as you can, while you still can that is, sounds like a smart move. Besides, while you rest I can focus on dethroning your dog as a poker champ; so it's good for both of us."

The rest of the sisters nodded, except for Luan, who held back another laughter, and Lucy, who simply glanced at the "Ars Loudia" she was hiding as she thought:

" _And it will give me time to unravel the dark mystery of this tome._ "

"Okay, everybody to your rooms then," Lori ordered. "Unwind; and when you feel better you can come back to Carol to see what to do next. Leni and I will be busy in the meantime."

The sisters-and Lincoln-obliged and everybody went upstairs to their rooms, allowing the poker game to continue. However, while the game continued without issue at first, there was a pause when the perpetually angry canary whistled, caught Carol and Charles' attention, then pointed at something.

Or in this case, someone, this being Lana.

"Oh, so one of the Louds stayed behind, huh?" Carol remarked, tilting her head in surprise. "What's up? Not as tired as your brother and sisters?"

"I'm used to waking up early, so I'm good." Lana sheepishly answered before sitting down. "Besides, I want to see if Charles can keep his "poker king" title to himself. This is the first time I've seen someone other than Lisa give him a run for his money."

Carol and Charles exchanged a look, but the teenager simply smiled and said, "Alright, you can watch us; maybe even talk with me. Just don't try to be too distracting, okay?"

The plumber tomboy excitedly nodded and sat down before speaking:

"So, my name's Lana Loud. These are our pets; the dog's named Charles, you already met him, the cat's named Cliff, the canary's named Walt, and the hamster's named Geo."

"Huh, thanks for telling me their names, even though Lori already told them to me earlier," Carol replied, causing Lana to blush and hit herself in the face. "She told them to me in a... harsh manner, though, so I appreciate your mature approach."

"I know it must be so weird for me, the younger sister, to be more mature than the older one," Lana laughed a bit, scratching the back of her head. "But, I prefer to be relaxed in general; if I freak out, chances are my pets will freak out too. And I have a lot of pets."

Lana then looked away and thought to herself, " _And besides, it would only make me blend with the crowd even more._ "

"Hehe, well, that's a good assumption to make about your pets," Carol sighed and leaned a bit closer. "After all, animals tend to follow the pack leader's action. If they freak out, their followers will follow suit."

Lana's laughter stopped. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Lana, did Lori and Leni tell you nothing of your powers?" Carol tilted her head and frowned, smiling in sympathy. "Surely they told you something about them. The ability to talk to animals? Morphing into an animal and back? The power to control earth?"

"The last one was the only thing they taught me before some masked people attacked us," Lana answered, only to suddenly realize something. "Wait, are you saying I can talk to animals and turn into one!?"

Carol silently nodded, and promptly stated, "However, those two techniques are a little bit harder to pull of than the terrakinesis they taught you. Try talking with Charles over here."

Lana turned to the family dog, and she focused her energy on her birthmark, which glowed blue as she leaned closer and said, "Charles, talk."

The dog obliged... and barked, which the plumber could only interpret as... a bark. No words or anything she could identify as an actual language. So she sighed and turned off her birthmark before backing away.

"It didn't work," Lana sighed, before suddenly chirping up, "How do I learn how to talk to animals?! That's one of things I'd love to do the most! Well, learning how to turn into an animal would be cool, too."

Carol frowned and put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Lana, take this as me giving you some advice: The more you just want something, and the more you complain about it, the more likely you'll either won't get it, or it'll be a handout. And neither will feel satisfying."

The tomboy thought about it for a second, and she looked at the ground with worry-even fear-at the idea. However, this changed when Carol put her remaining hand on her other shoulder, and said:

"However, that probably won't happen. When it does, it's usually people who want an easy way out of everything, who believe everything should be given to them without putting any effort on their part. If you do put in the work; it'll happen."

Carol leaned closer. "So, Lana, do you wanna have the power, a power that could let you knock on the door to your true power, given to you, or do you wanna earn it?"

Without hesitation, Lana narrowed her eyes and stated:

"I wanna earn it!"

 _Back upstairs..._

Lincoln walked up to the twins' bedroom, where the first thing he saw, besides the door being left wide open, was Lola having a tea party with a stuffed toy as big as herself. The boy, knowing that doing it normally would just tick off the diva, leaned against the doorframe and said, "So, left the door wide open again, huh?"

Lola threw a look at Lincoln, before stiffling a laughter and answering, "I just wanted to see if anybody would be stupid enough to come in here while I'm angry. Don't worry, I wasn't expecting you to come."

The diva looked elsewhere. "To be honest, I thought Leni would be the first to come here, if not the only one."

And as Lola took a sip of her tea, Lincoln walked towards her and took the stuffed toy's place. He then grabbed a teacup and lifted his pinky. "May I have some tea?"

Lola rolled her eyes and served the guy some tea, without saying a single word. Lincoln took a sip of it, then asked:

"So... do these tea parties calm you down?"

"Lincoln, chit-chat won't help me calm down, so I suggest you think very carefully before saying anything, or just don't say anything at all," the fake princess sternly growled, then took a deep breath, "But, just to humor your question..."

Lola was about to answer, only to suddenly come into a halt as she gave the question a second thought. And the more she thought about it, the more the diva got the idea that she really couldn't humor a question she had no answer to.

The tea party itself didn't seem to be calming her down, that's for sure.

"You don't have to answer me if you want, I can already tell you're not sure what to say," Lincoln blurted, startling Lola. "However, I think I know what question you can answer: Do you really think any of our other siblings care about beauty pageants besides you?"

Somberly, Lola sighed, took another sip of her tea, and bluntly stated, "No. But I thought that if I showed them how it had something to do with you, with the crown and that stuff, I thought... they'd actually want to help us."

Lincoln took a sip of his tea and asked, "Do you wanna give it another shot?"

The pageant princess desperately nodded for a brief moment, before pausing and nodding in a slower, calmer speed. Lincoln got up and put his hands on the table before stating:

"Give me a couple minutes, then see me downstairs."

 _Meanwhile, elsewhere..._

Lori leaned against a wall, arms folded behind her back as she looked at the ground, seemingly waiting for someone. Very close to her was a door that seemed metallic in nature, with three symbols: One that looked like Lori's birthmark, one that looked like Leni's birthmark, and one that looked like... Carol's birthmark. And somehow, the last symbol seemed to send a chill down Lori's spine.

" _Somehow, I get the feeling that whatever Carol has on her side of the door is going to freak me out,_ " Lori thought, taking a deep breath before rubbing her forehead. " _Specially since there's no other way to contact... them, without my and Leni's lives being literally in danger._ "

"Sorry for taking so long."

Lori turned around and saw none other than Leni walking to her, arms behind her back and with a calm look on her face.

"About time, Leni," Lori sighed.

Suddenly, a loud noise came out of the mechanical door, causing Lori to jump straight into Leni's arms in fear. Once the sound finished, a robotic voice said "Input denied."

"I hate how that thing is so voice sensitive," Lori complained as she got off and dusted herself. "We literally can't even say our own names without setting it off."

Leni gestured her sister to let her take care of it. So Lori took a step back, Leni took a step forward, and she stated:

"Leni Loud."

Leni's symbol on the door glowed as the door slowly opened to reveal a turquoise portal, which Lori approached moments afterwards.

"Okay, so, when I'm literally done with the meeting, I'm gonna have to go and check up on the Santiagos, mostly Bobby, since he seems... a bit more jumpy since they returned," Lori answered, scratching the back of her head as she finished, "What are you going to do, Leni?"

The fashionista slowly turned to face Lori, then put on a serious tone as she answered, "Lola always wants to, like, go and win beauty pageants no matter the prize, right?"

Lori nodded, and shortly afterwards, Leni moved her hands to her stomach, where a circular shape glowed as she materialized a copy of the pamphlet Lola held. She then showed it to Lori, who raised her eyebrows in surprise as Leni stated:

" _She's gotta learn her lesson sooner instead of later._ "

 _Back at the Loud living room..._

Lola walked downstairs, with the first thing she saw after arriving being her remaining sisters-besides Lisa and Lily-looking at her, alongside Lincoln. The boy gestured the diva to come to him, and she hesitantly obliged, glancing at her staring sisters all the while.

"Okay, now that everybody's here, let's get back to what we were gonna talk about earlier," Lincoln remarked before putting a hand on the pageant princess' shoulder, startling her. "Lola has something to tell us, so please, at least listen for a sec, okay?"

Lola turned to her sisters, took out the pamphlet, and took a deep breath before speaking:

"Earlier, Lincoln was given this pamphlet by some girls who claimed to be his gang. Why he's their leader is not important, what is important is that the prize for this beauty pageant is a crown that Lincoln says was in his dreams!"

"Well, that'd be an amazing coincidence if that was the case," Lucy remarked, turning her focus to Lola and Lincoln. "I usually don't mind being a downer, so don't take it as me not caring about it when I ask: Lincoln, are you sure you're not just seeing things? Are you sure that crown's the same one you saw in your dreams?"

Lincoln folded his arms and sighed. "It's definitely the same, it has to be! That crown and the crown from my dream look way too similar for it to be a simple coincidence!"

"Yeah, talk about _coinci-dense_? Hahaha, get it?" Luan quipped, before switching to a more serious tone, while keeping her smile. "But seriously, we all know Lola doesn't care about your crown dream, Lincoln. She only cares about the beauty pageant 'cause she can participate, and most likely win it."

"Yeah, I hate to say it, but I agree with Luan," Lucy frowned. "Lola's always been like that, Lincoln, and there's nothing suggesting this time's any different."

The goth then got up and finished, "So, I suggest you don't pay her attention. That's all she's trying to get."

"Wait, you seriously won't help us?!" Lola exclaimed as the rest of the sisters got up. "C'mon guys you really don't want to give it more thought?"

The sisters rolled their eyes and went walking back upstairs, at least until Lola shouted:

"Uh, hello? I asked you guys a question, and I'm expecting an answer! I mean, come on! Are you guys ignoring me or something!?"

"Lola, could you be quiet, please?" Lynn requested sternly. "It's hard to ignore you when you're being so noisy."

And then Lucy added, "Specially when we know you'll probably do whatever you want, regardless of what we tell you."

Caught totally off-guard by the remark, Lola flinched and stood frozen in place as the sisters continued walking upstairs, with the diva only moving again when they were out of sight. Lincoln couldn't help but feel a little sorry for his diva of a sister, so he slowly approached her.

And then, Lola turned around, revealing her arms were behind her back, and she seemed to be frowning. However, just as the boy started to feel sympathetic towards the diva, she unleashed her secret weapon: She opened her eyes, and revealed they were now puppy-dog eyes!

"You're going to help me practice for the beauty pageant, right, Lincoln?" Lola asked, putting up the most innocent tone she could muster. "Pretty please? I'm sure I'll have trouble without your coaching!"

"I don't know, Lola; I got a lot of questions that I'd like to get answered first," Lincoln answered before recapping, "Like, how am I gonna tell Ronnie Anne and Clyde about this? How long do we even have before the beauty pageant happens? Why were those three biker girls, of all people, handing out invitations to it in the first place?"

And then, one particular, yet _very_ important question came up:

"And what about Lindsey Sweeywater?"

Lola gasped and returned to normal as she tried to process if Lincoln really did just ask that. She then gritted her teeth and growled, "You know I hate it when people mention her name in this house!"

"Right, sorry, that question popped up in my head so suddenly I didn't have time to think," Lincoln sheepishly smiled. "You gotta admit that it's kinda suspicious that you're being so energetic about this beauty pageant, and not once mentioned her."

"It's completely reasonable that I refuse to think about, let alone bring up, my life-long beauty pageant rival!" Lola snapped, before folding her arms and closing her eyes. "There's simply no reason to, anyway; I only wanted to bring attention to the beauty pageant, suggest that I participate in it, and that was it."

"It still wouldn't hurt to check up on her, right?"

Lincoln and Lola turned around and saw Lana walk to them from the basement.

Lola put up a pouty face and whined, "Do we really have to go see Lindsey Sweetwater?"

"Of course we do!" Lana shouted, clearly getting tired of her sister's stubbornness.

It was _her_ job to be the stubborn twin, not Lola!

"She's been your rival ever since your first beauty pageant, and she also always comes to the beauty pageants you go to. Don't you find it weird she's not coming for this one specific pageant?"

"To be frank, I find it refreshing," Lola stated. "Take a break from the whole beauty showbiz and either think of new strategies, or just find something else to do. She needs the break, she's been through this for years, after all."

Lana, however, just rebutted. "By that logic, you should be taking a break too!"

This only made Lola snap. "And break my perfect attendance record?! No way!"

And finally, Lincoln rubbed his forehead in exasperation. "Okay, stop it you two! Fighting with each other won't help anybody,"

Lincoln butt in between the twins fight and glanced at the two:

"Lana, you need to choose your words more carefully so you won't upset whoever you're talking to, and Lola we'll have to find out what's up with Lindsey Sweetwater eventually; so whether you like it or not, it's better to see her right now rather than later."

The twins exchanged looks and, agreeing with their brothers' statement, looked away from each other and folded their arms before growling, "Fine!" in unison.

Things were still heated, but it was better than nothing, so Lincoln took a deep breath and further explained:

"Alright, so let's call it a night and check up on Lindsey Sweetwater tomorrow. And if she's not available tomorrow, we'll just try again later. We're in no rush, the beauty pageant will happen... actually, when does it happen?"

Lola quickly took out the pamphlet, looked over it fast, and she sternly sighed. "Sunday."

"Okay, we got time then, so we'll go see her tomorrow," Lincoln sighed in relief, believing the situation had been taken care of. "How about we get on with the rest of the day?"

The twins silently nodded in agreement, and marched on to do their business: Lola marched to the backyard, while Lana marched upstairs to her and Lola's bedroom. Before going to the backyard, though, Lola gestured Lincoln to follow her, and the guy just obliged, figuring angering the diva any more wouldn't be worth it.

 _Meanwhile, at Lynn and Lucy's bedroom..._

The jock slept peacefully on her bed while the goth watched her from her own bed, unsure of whether she was asleep or not. Lucy got off her bed, sneakily went closer to Lynn, and then checked her for a moment to see if she'd wake up. Once she verified that the athlete really was asleep, Lucy formed a little smile and took out the "Ars Loudia" book and slowly backed away...

"Lucy?"

The goth jumped and threw the book in the air, only narrowly managing to catch it back once the shock wore off. "W-W-What is it, Lynn?"

"Do you really think I'm that stupid, Luce?" the jock sternly stated as she got off her bed. "Whenever you relax during day, it's so you can write poetry, try to contact some spirit, or some other goth stuff. You never want to rest until it's night, so tell me what are you up to this time."

The poet glanced at the Ars Loudia book, then showed it to her sister as she approached her, "I found this book on the attic while we were looking for answers-"

"I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and say that you want to try and use it to get answers," Lynn guessed, earning a nod from the goth. "And, listen, I understand why you would want to do that; heck I'm gonna be optimistic and say that there might be a decent chance to get at least one answer out of this book."

Lucy briefly chirped up. "So you do under-"

"But!" Lynn shouted, shutting up Lucy in the process. "I wouldn't do it right now. In fact, last couple days have been a bit hard: We got beat down by our... copycats or whatever yesterday, and today, we found out that school is closed for a while. And some of our headaches, mine in particular, haven't completely cleared up yet, so taking a break from everything wouldn't hurt, would it?"

Lucy somberly looked at the book, prompting Lynn to hastily add, "You can try look through the book tomorrow if you want, I'm not going to stop you from trying to find something out of that thing. All I'm saying is let's put in on the back burner for now."

The goth hummed to herself, giving Lynn's proposition a second thought. And the more she thought about it, the more it seemed like the better option at that point. Besides, last time she tried to use a spellbook, it turned out to be a haux. And the girl wasn't really in the mood for a disappointment to further upset her.

"Sigh, you're right, Lynn," Lucy answered.

"Lucy, you know how I don't-" it took the jock a second to register what her sister said. "Wait, you agree with me?!"

"Yes, I'm taking way too big a risk right now, sorry that I tried to look at this book so soon," Lucy then got an idea. "However, if you don't mind, can we at least take a look at it's content so we know what's inside? We're not gonna summon anything, we're just gonna look at stuff."

Lynn narrowed her eyes, not quite sure whether she should trust the girl or not. After all, it was Lucy, someone who was hoping to become a mortician one day, not to mention she did fake funerals as a hobby. However, the athlete eventually nodded and sat down with Lucy to see the book's content, which was normal for the most part...

Then they reached one particular page, and they said it's title in unison:

"Vine and Gusion?"

* * *

- **Next Chapter Preview** -

"Greetings, everybody, Lindsey Sweetwater here."

The first scene showed Lincoln, Lana, and Lola standing outside the Sweetwater mansion, where they were initially threatened by several weapons coming out of the entrance, only for them to retract and the gates to open.

"It seems that Lola's come to pay me a visit."

Lola, Lana, and Lincoln entered Lindsey's bedroom, where the redhead had prepared a little tea party. The trio sat down, Lola snapped at Lindsey, and the redhead glared at the diva before, one quick cut later, showed Lola being kicked out of the room.

"And of course, there are other things happening right now."

Two scenes were shown in quick succession: Ronnie Anne eavesdropping her Mother, Maria, snapping at Bobby, who looked worried, and Carlota, who didn't look worried, and Clyde and Penelope at the market, where Penelope crashed with Papa Wheelie, Flat Tire, and Rusty Spokes.

"But back on topic, I got some issues with Lola that have been shelved for far too long."

Back with Lindsey, Lana, and Lincoln, the bandaged redhead explained herself while what looked like a younger, non-bandaged version of herself eavesdropped Lola talking with Lisa.

"Hopefully, these two discount fashion models can help me with that."

The models turned out to be Leni, who bowed elegantly, and Carlota, who reached for her back and took out a copy of the Ars Loudia.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Back at the Loud house, Lynn was chewed out by somebody over the phone, only to snap back and then hang up out of frustration.

"Onwards to the Sweetwater Mansion! Lola's Eternal Rival, Lindsey Sweetwater!"

Lucy and Lynn talked for a moment, while Leni and Carlota talked with Lindsey to further convince the redhead to perform the ritual.

"Don't miss it, if you'd please."

And concurrently, the trio at the mansion and the duo at the household prepared the summoning rites...


	10. Eternal Rival

**Here's the next chapter of the story, and the Proto-Lola arc. Before we begin with the reviews, I'd like to apologize for not updating the "Caste Examination" side story this week, and probably next week. I discussed this matter with my partner, A Hopeful Observer, and we agreed to not update the story until the P-Lola arc was finished. So, just need to be patient, okay?**

 **Also, I'm kinda sorta working on several other stories (Atychiphobia, Lori the Fencer, Darcy or Family, Conflicted Feelings, and several other one-shots that I really wanna write), so... yeah, I'm kind of in a mumbled mess, but I can manage, don't worry.**

 **Now, since I believe I've been blabbering for long enough, let's get to the reviews:**

 **1) GennaiArakida-XIV: Yes, the dreaded name and book return. As for who's Gusion... well, Vine's Proto-Lucy, so...**

 **2) Nobody245: Proto-Lola may appear either at the end of next chapter, or the chapter after that. And really, if the Proto-Sisters met the new Lincoln, they might consider him weird, but it's Proto-Lincoln (Who's an entirely separate persona) who they have a beef with.**

 **3) Omega Ultra: Yes.**

 **4) Finnjr63: Thx.**

 **5) animehero1000: Think like a wedlocked child, or a half-sibling/cousin removed.**

 **6) ChernoMan: Yup, they'll be back. Also, thanks. :)**

 **7) Observant Guest: Yeah, I couldn't take away Carol and Lana's friendship! That would be cruel! As for why Carol seemed unsure, I'm fairly certain the situation she was in made it difficult for her to think clearly: She's now a new mentor, she met the pets, she's currently playing poker with a freaking dog, her mind's all over the place by now.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 10: Onwards to the Sweetwater Mansion! Lola's Eternal Rival, Lindsey Sweetwater!**

* * *

 _Next day, outside the Sweetwater Residence..._

Lincoln, Lola, and Lana stood outside the residence, which just so happened to be a freaking mansion. This fact, however, only further angered Lola. After all, she was the one who put more effort in all beauty pageants, at least in her opinion, and yet her rival's the one with a nice-looking house?!

"Okay, here we are," Lincoln remarked, glancing at the twins as he asked, "Are you girls ready to go inside?"

"One thing I wanna say before we go," Lola stated, getting her brother's attention. "I understand why we came here, but why'd Lana come?!"

"I came along to make sure you don't end up saying something that could tick off Lindsey," Lana sternly answered, folding her arms and rolling her eyes. "Knowing how your relationship is with her, the first thing that'll come out of your mouth is probably an insult to her face."

"I wouldn't do such a thing!" Lola snapped, sounding offended. "I'd insult her fashion sense before insulting her body!"

Lana narrowed her eyes. "That doesn't help your case."

"Alright, I'll go see if they can let us in before you two start a fight," Lincoln sighed as he walked towards the door.

The boy touched the doorbell, and after a short bell sound, a miniature screen came out and said, with a mechanical voice: "Who's there?"

"Um, hello, whoever's behind the screen," Lincoln nervously greeted. "I'm Lincoln Loud, and I'm here with my sisters, Lana and Lola Loud. We came here because we heard about a beauty pageant happening this Sunday, and we wanted to know if Lindsey Sweetwater would come."

"Lindsey Sweetwater is currently under rehabilitation and rest due to sustained facial injuries," the voice spoke, sternly and bluntly. "Even if she wanted to go, she'd still need quite a bit of time before she could participate in a beauty pageant again. Especially if she's going to face off against the infamous Lola Loud. She's also not taking in any visitors, so the only thing I can ask of you is to vacate the premises."

"But-"

A couple seconds barely passed before a large array of weapons came out of the gate, all aimed at the Loud trio as the voice warned:

"Go away before you're terminated. You have five seconds to comply."

The sisters hugged their brother in fear, and just as he started to wonder what he could do, another voice-a female one at that-spoke out of the machine:

"Going way too overboard again, Greg?"

The other voice returned, "L-Lindsey? I thought you were resting in your room."

And the female voice responded, "I still am, I just decided to butt in before you sent them flying away, like with most visitors, and the Bluebell scouts too for some reason. Listen, I know I'm under doctor's orders to rest in my bedroom, but I couldn't help but feel like someone mentioned Lola Loud. Is she there?"

"Y-Yes-"

"Let her in, I could use a chat with her. I need to blow off some steam."

With that said, the weaponry returned where they came from, the screen left, and the gates slowly opened as the trio couldn't help but wonder what the heck just happened. Not the fact that Lindsey had some words to tell Lola, that was easy to get, but regarding everything else... they were stumped. However, it wasn't long before they agreed to just go along with it and not question anything.

They had a gut feeling that doing that would be for the best.

So the trio walked forward towards the door, and as they walked, Lola took a look at the statues around the garden, and she couldn't help but find some resemblance to a certain person she was familiar with. Who this person was, however, a bit hazy since she was still recovering from the headache.

That and her attention was caught when a butler opened the door, and her brother recognized who it was.

"Wait a minute, Chandler?!" Lincoln exclaimed in disbelief. "I thought you were with Penelope or something!"

"Well, since I have to work off some debt with the Sweetwaters, I couldn't be her companion for today," the redheaded butler answered, rolling his eyes. "However, Penelope has her ways, so she probably just found someone else to be her lackey for the day."

Lincoln couldn't help but wonder, "And who would be the poor guy?"

 _Meanwhile, at the market..._

Penelope lively strolled around the market place, with her "lackey" following behind her. This lackey was none other than Clyde, who looked positively less than thrilled about the situation.

"Okay, so we need some apples, oranges, bananas, and also some vegetables, but I can't help but wonder if I'm forgetting something," Penelope remarked, not really paying any attention to her surroundings. "Do you have the list I gave you, Clyde?"

The boy took out a list from his pocket and read it out loud, "Yeah, besides what you said, we also need to buy some beef, chicken, carrots... the more I read this list, the more it looks like we're looking for the ingredients of some sort of feast."

"Clyde, have you forgotten what I had to do in order to reach to my level of prominence?" Penelope teasingly stopped, turned to Clyde, and threw him a wink. "Whether at school or in the city in general, there will be several poor victims robbed of their lunch money, or even beaten up! Clearly, they need somebody to help them get back on their feet, and who else besides me?"

Penelope turned back and leaped to continue her stroll, only to wind up crashing into a familiar trio of guys. A biker trio to be exact, a trio formed of Papa Wheelie, the leader, Flat Tire, the second in-command, and Rusty Spokes, one of Lincoln and Clyde's friends.

"Ugh, that hurt!" Wheelie yelled as everybody got up and dusted themselves, staying furious at the redhead as his companions realized who she was and shivered in terror. "Hey, you! Watch where you're going next time, jerk!"

"W-Wheelie, I'd watch it if I were you!" Rusty whispered to the biker leader. "She's Penelope Johnson, the top bully in all of Royal Woods!"

"This little nerd is the top bully?" Wheelie asked in disbelief as Penelope stretched a bit. "Nah, you must be joking, she's a nerd! I mean just look at her: Glasses that look like they merged with her eyes, buck teeth, an alien on her shirt, she can't be a bully!"

The instant Penelope stopped stretching, she smiled and said, "Well thanks for the compliment, Willy."

Wheelie flinched and turned back to face the redhead. "H-How do you know my real name?!"

Suddenly, Penelope grabbed Wheelie by the neck of his shirt, and she smirked as she growled, "I'm not in a good mood, Willy. Specially not after you screamed in my face like that. If you think I only end at knowing your real name, then you've seen nothing at all. So I suggest you go away before I get physical with you."

The girl released the guy and pushed him towards his companions, and after sharing a look, the guys ran away in sheer terror, shrieking at the top of their lungs. And with that done, Penelope turned back to Clyde, who held a serious look as she said:

"Thanks for not warning them to go away while they could. I'm sure they'll eventually be "grateful" for your "help."

"I've learned that there's nothing worse than interrupting you when you're bullying someone," Clyde rolled his eyes and folded his arms. "Besides, you were clearly having so much fun, nothing I'd do or say would've convinced you to stop."

"So, you're still too passive for your own good, huh?" Penelope shrugged and shook her head. "Don't you ever get tired of staying at the sidelines, hoping things will be okay? Have you ever wondered if you could take the initiative one day? Will you always be stuck as Lincoln's sidekick, unable to really take any action by yourself without him being there to support you?"

The redhead leaned closer to Clyde, frowning as she added, "After all, it's because of your passiveness that Calliope is no longer with us. I trusted you to keep her safe, and you wind up doing nothing to protect her."

Penelope narrowed her eyes. "Does _that_ mean nothing to you?"

Clyde narrowed his eyes and looked at the ground, prompting Penelope to turn around and state, "Anyway, we're wasting time. Let's continue with the shopping, and when we're done, you can think about what I've told you. And trust me, for your own good, you better put some good thought into it."

Penelope strolled away just as Clyde returned to reality and followed her. And as he saw her stroll rather joyously, without a care in the world, he couldn't help but ponder if there was something Penelope was trying to tell him something other than he should be more assertive.

Then again, it probably would be better if he didn't give it too much thought.

 _Back at the Sweetwater Mansion..._

Lincoln, Lana, and Lola held hands and walked together as they followed Chandler towards Lindsey's bedroom. As they walked, Lola and Lana took the moment to look at the pictures hanging on the wall. Most of them depicted Lindsey when she was younger, and with a muscular man with his face shadowed or out of frame.

"When you take care of somebody in Lindsey's condition, and you legitimately care about them, It's only natural that you'd want to make sure nothing happens to them," Chandler suddenly remarked, catching the trio's attention. "Of course, sometimes that desire to protect her can go a bit... overboard."

"Has anybody else tried to come here?" Lana asked.

"There was one girl by the name of "Giggles" that was given the job of cheering Lindsey up," the redheaded butler folded his arms and sighed. "She did manage to do her job well, but ever since then, Lindsey's been... contemplative, or something. Like there was something on her mind besides defeating Lola for once."

Lola flinched and growled as Lincoln remarked, "Oh hey, I know her! Luan set me up for a date with her alongside Luna, Lynn, and Lucy's friends."

"Really?" Lola asked with a mixed tone of curiosity and teasing. "And how did that go?"

"Well, things got a bit out of control later on, but at least everybody left the dance happy after they decided to hang out with my friends instead," Lincoln sighed and smiled. "I'm not sure how their relationship with my friends went later on, though, but I'm assuming they're still happy, to an extent. I mean, I haven't asked them or anything, but-"

"You better make sure your assumptions have some sort of weight to them, Larry," Chandler bluntly interrupted, startling the Loud trio. "After all, if it turns out to be wrong, then you could end up paying a terrible price. A painful one, even."

Then everybody stopped at the end of the hallway and noticed the door at the very end, with a sign reading "Lindsey's room" hanging on the door. Chandler then turned to the trio, gestured them to be on their best behavior, and he promptly grabbed the doorknob and slowly opened it...

 _Meanwhile, at the Santiago household..._

Ronnie Anne went walking to the staircase with a stern look, the collar still attached to her neck, though at least this time the timer had reset and it wasn't even moving anymore. However, this didn't change the fact the tomboy was stuck with the thing on her neck with no idea how to take it out, so she grumbled and started to go upstairs until she heard:

"Are you out of your mind?!"

And she recognized the voice belonged to her mother. So she ran closer to the room the voice came from, the kitchen, and she took a peek from the door frame. Inside were Bobby and Carlota, sitting on the table as her mother, Mrs. Santiago, walked back and forth in a fit of rage. And while Bobby seemed nervous at the woman's anger, Carlota just focused on polishing her nails.

"Let me make sure I understand this: that collar is still in it's prototype stage, it's only gone through a couple tests on non-living creatures, and it hasn't even been tested on living creatures yet!" Mrs. Santiago snapped, before stopping and turning her focus to Carlota. "What made you think it was a good idea to put the collar on Ronnie Anne's neck, Carlota?!"

Ronnie almost gasped before she covered her mouth. " _She put the collar on my neck?!_ "

And then Mrs. Santiago turned to look at Bobby. "And you! why didn't you stop her?! You know about the collar, you know It's not safe to use it yet, and you should've known the danger Ronalda would be put in if the collar was-!"

"I tried to stop her, Mom, I honestly did!" Bobby exclaimed back, with Carlota rolling her eyes as he continued. "But no matter how hard I tried to convince her, she just wouldn't listen to me! The only thing I managed to do was strike a deal with her."

Mrs. Santiago calmed down a little and raised an eyebrow. "Deal?"

"I put the collar on Ronalda while she was sleeping, that much is true. However I no longer hold the key to unlocking it," Carlota bluntly and briefly explained before looking at Bobby. "I handed the key to Bobby, so whenever he felt like Ronalda had gone through enough, he could use the key to free her from the collar's clutches. In fact, I think he was about to do just that when you called us here, Aunt Maria."

And as Mrs. Maria Santiago, or just Maria, exchanged looks with Bobby, Carlota got up and walked towards the backyard, only to be instantly spotted by the woman.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Maria snapped, getting the fashionista to stop on the spot. "I still have to give you an earful for what you did!"

"Do you really think I have the time to hear you jabber on and on like you always do, Aunt Maria?" Carlota shrugged and shook her head. "Unlike you, I have other things to take care of. In fact, I have to go help set up a beauty pageant for this Sunday."

"But, you don't like beauty pageants," Bobby casually pointed out.

"That's true. However, my... boss, does like them, and she asked me to help her for some reason," the fashionista somberly answered, taking a deep breath before she finished, "I made a deal with her, and if I want Ronnie Anne to be safe, I can't defy her. So, I have to go help her, or else she's gonna get angry."

With that said and done, Carlota left the room, and Maria basically asked Bobby to go take out Ronnie's collar, prompting the peeping tomboy to run off and try to find some place to act like nothing happened. So of course, she ran off to her room upstairs as fast as she could like she originally planned. She went inside, and sat on her bed as she waited for Bobby to come, all while wondering:

" _Why would Carlota even put the collar on my neck?_ "

 _Back with the Loud trio..._

Lincoln, Lana, and Lola went inside to Lindsey's bedroom, with Chandler closing the door once the three were inside. From what they could see, the room was mostly pink, with some large plushed toys laying around, and a bed in the middle of the room. Next to said bed was a tea party, where a girl with a bandaged face waved to catch the trio's attention.

And if Lola's intuition was correct, this bandaged girl was none other, than Lindsey Sweetwater.

"Greetings, everyone," the girl greeted as the trio approached her. "I'm Lindsey Sweetwater. I had my butler Chandler prepare this tea party for you three, to try and spice your visit up a bit, so please; sit down and I'll pour some tea on your cups."

"Well, hello there, Lindsey Sweetwater," Lola greeted, clearly hissing underneath her breath as she and her siblings sat down. "I find it kinda weird that you decided to see us while clearly having just come out of bed, but oh well, whatever makes you happy."

"I know I have reacted to your previous insults in quite an emotionally sensitive, not to mention immature, way but I'm afraid you won't get the pleasure of seeing me act like that in a while," Lindsey answered as she poured the tea on her visitors' teacups. "The doctor instructed me to stay calm at all times, just to make sure my body managed to heal properly. Apparently, getting really emotional slows down the healing process, or something like that."

"I like your wordy approach, Lindsey, but I'm afraid that won't trick us!" Lola sneered with a smug tone as the bandaged redhead sat down. "You have another reason for why you're not going, right? Besides your bandaged face, of course, there has to be another reason!"

Lindsey crossed her legs and rolled her eyes. "If we're going to assume somebody has hidden motives, that would need to be you, Lola."

"Huh?!" Lola flinched and slammed her fists down the table. "A-Are you accusing me of hiding something?!"

Lola then turned to her siblings, who took a sip of their tea. "Lana! Lincoln! Can you believe her!?"

"Totally," Lana bluntly stated.

"Um, well, you did accuse her of having hidden motives, and seeing how, that's... kinda rude," Lincoln argued, twiddling his fingers nervously before he added, "Besides, think about this logically: If she really did have hidden motives, would she really reveal them right away?"

Lola didn't even think about it for a second before she face palmed and growled, "How did I miss something so obvious!?"

"You were most likely too caught up insulting me to really give it much thought," Lindsey guessed, shaking her head in disapproval. "It's like the beauty pageant of 87'."

"You weren't born back then," Lincoln pointed out. "You weren't, right?"

Lindsey chuckled. "Of course I wasn't, but my dad participated in it. In fact, he was the one who made the mistake, and it costed him the win."

"Actually, now that you mention him, there's one thing we'd like to know before we move on," Lincoln said, earning looks from Lola and Lana as the twins drank a bit of their tea. "Who's your father?"

With a blunt question came a blunt answer:

"Mr. Universe."

The twins spat out the tea and Lincoln's jaw dropped. Luckily, he managed to close it as the twins caught their breath, and Lola exclaimed, " _The_ Mr. Universe?! The legendary beauty pageant master who's won several dozen pageants when he was my age?! _That Mr. Universe_?!"

"Yes, but I'll understand if it's a bit hard to believe," Lindsey waved her hand. "Please, feel free to change the subject. We can talk about anything you want."

Hearing this, Lincoln gave it some thought. He definitely didn't want to bring up some other baffling subject, specially since Lola seemed to be about to explode any second now, judging by how much she was shivering. So he thought as hard as he could... and then Lana suddenly asked:

"What happened to your face?"

Lola gasped and Lincoln covered the plumber's mouth before they turned to see Lindsey's eyes being shadowed by her hair. However, she didn't seem to be particularly furious, or even angry in a manner fitting for one of Lola's rival. She seemed to be angry in a subtler way.

So Lindsey lifted her face a little and she stated, "I figured you'd be asking that question sooner or later. I was hoping you would do it later, but oh well."

Then she faced the pageant diva. "Lola, please get out of here."

"Wait, what?!" Lola snapped. "Why do I have to leave?! Why can't I stay?!"

"I have no problems with your brother, and while I don't like how her face reminds me of yours, I don't have problems with your twin sister either," Lindsey explained sternly. "So, I feel a bit more comfortable explaining what happened to them, rather than you, who should already know why by now."

"That's so unfair!" Lola whined, throwing her arms up in the air. "How do you expect me to try make up for what I did to you if I don't even know what I did!?"

"I don't, I've had enough encounters with you to know the kind of person you are," Lindsey narrowed her eyes and began recapping, "Selfish, bossy, self-centered, obnoxious, greedy... there's a lot more stuff, but what I have said should give you a general idea of what I'm talking about."

"That does sound a lot like Lola," Lana remarked with a shrug.

Lola gritted her teeth and glared at Lana, prompting Lincoln to nervously add, "B-But, she's usually only like that on a bad day! Normally, she's an angel!"

Lola calmed down and pridefully folded her arms and nodded, believing this would be enough to convince the redhead. However, Lindsey wasn't even fazed; She stood up, walked closer towards the diva with a stern look, and before she knew it, the pair were face-to-face, as Lindsey scoffed:

"More like a fallen angel, all things considered."

Then she narrowed her eyes and added:

"Besides, telling me won't change my mind."

And that statement brought a couple memories to the tomboy plumber nearby. " _That's what Claire said..._ "

"So, I'm going to request that you leave again, and this is the last time I ask you nicely," Lindsey hissed, leaning closer to Lola. "If you refuse to leave by will, then I'll have Chandler take you out by force!"

Lola sneered. "I'd like to see you backup that claim!"

Lindsey pulled out a bell from behind her back and moved it a little, summoning Chandler to the room. She then pointed at Lola, and next thing the pageant diva knew, Chandler grabbed her by the neck of her dress, swung her out of the room, and then closed the door to said room before guarding it like a bodyguard.

Seeing this, Lola stood up and dusted herself. She clutched her chest and caught her breath as she looked at the redhead, who was throwing an angry glare at her.

"So, you took me out of there, good for you." Lola sighed before smiling. "Do you really think you can keep me out, though? You're a butler, those mostly work in household chores, so what's the chance that you even know how to fight?"

Chandler simply unfolded his arms and surrounded one of them with light blue lighting, instantly turning Lola's smug smile into a worried frown.

Back inside, Lindsey sat back on her seat and she promptly began her explanation:

"This happened a couple weeks ago, during the last beauty pageant I went to before the incident..."

 _Lindsey's flashback..._

 _Lindsey leaned against the wall, arms folded as she looked around the stage as some beauty pageant participants walked around, some a bit more upset than others. Not only that, but it seemed like the pageant had just ended, judging by the words and the mention of Lola's name in the background, with the diva being nowhere to be seen._

"Things weren't any different than they used to be; I tried my hardest, Lola tried just as hard, she got the first place, and I followed behind in second place."

 _Lindsey of the past sighed before Lola came inside, holding the first place trophy._

"She got the trophy, she got the prize, she got everything she basically could get from first place. And all I really got was bragging rights, which I already had about a dozen of those, so it didn't really mean anything to me."

 _Lola walked past Lindsey, but not before pulling her eyelid and taking out her tongue, annoying the girl a little. In fact, Lindsey just rolled her eyes exasperation._

"However, one thing went a little differently: Once Lola left after the pageant was over, she went behind the pageant hall, where nobody would be at for hours. And I heard her talking to someone, so of course I went to check what was going on."

 _Lindsey sneakily went to the backyard and hid behind some crates, before taking a peek at Lola talking with... Lisa?_

"The person she was talking with was a brunette toddler with glasses and a lab coat, who I assume was her younger sister. I took a listen to their conversation, and I found out something... troubling."

 _The Lola of the past snapped at Lisa, "I don't care what materials you need, I don't care how long it takes you, and just like you, I certainly don't care about how legal this may not be! Lindsey came **this** close to defeating me this time, and I must **never** allow that to happen! So I'm asking, no, I'm ordering you, to make something that will make sure I can win beauty pageants, forever!"_

 _Past Lindsey covered her mouth and backed away, only to trip with something with a notable *THUD*, no doubt getting Lola and Lisa's attention._

"Shocked, I tripped over something, and had to make a run for it before they found me."

 _The girl got up and ran as fast and as far as she could, until she had left the building. Once she was at the frontyard, the girl leaned against a wall and slowly slid to the floor before she uncovered her mouth and caught her breath._

"Luckily, they didn't seem to chase, or even notice me, since they were nowhere to be seen when I stopped. However, it was too late: I already knew about Lola's little plan to make sure nobody but she could ever win a beauty pageant. Sure, a lot of details were lacking, but I knew what the basis was, and I knew that I needed to do something about it."

 _Back at the present..._

"But, wait a minute, I don't remember Lisa and Lola ever agreeing to that," Lana remarked, scratching her head. "I would know because whenever Lola thinks she has a plan to win at beauty pageants, or just win in general, she brags about it to me or practically anyone in earshot."

"Maybe you weren't there when she was bragging that time?" Lincoln guessed, shrugging as he raised an eyebrow.

"It's not as simple as that, Lincoln," Lana shook her head. "I mean, think about it: why would Lisa even bother helping Lola, if she's not interested in beauty pageants? Knowing her, Lola would need to get something to convince her, and I find that hard to believe."

"If only I had known about that earlier, I could've saved myself a lot of trouble," Lindsey remarked, shaking her head in regret. "Sadly, I only knew what I knew at the moment, and that made me do one of the biggest mistakes I had ever done. However, since remembering that is painful, let's just say: I checked with the genius, I thought her current invention was gonna be used by Lola, I was wrong, we fought a little, and then the thing blew up right on my and the girl's face."

"Lisa was hit by it too?!" Lincoln exclaimed in shock.

"Yes, sadly though, I'm not willing to tell you any more about it," Lindsey nodded. "Now, if you don't want to suffer what Lola went through, I suggest you leave right now, please."

Not really feeling like incurring the bandaged girl's wrath, Lincoln and Lana left the room... only to find Lola face-first on the ground, electricity surging around her body while Chandler, with his arms folded behind his back, leaned against a wall nearby.

"I'm not gonna ask," Lincoln walked to the electrified girl and lifted her. "Anyway, Lindsey finished with what she wanted to tell us, and she asked us to leave."

Chandler nodded. "I'll guide you to the exit, then."

The trio followed the redhead and eventually left the mansion. Once they were out, however, a certain pair of individuals entered Lindsey's bedroom, not through the door but through the window.

And they just so happened to be one of Lincoln's sisters, and one of Ronnie Anne's cousins...

 _Meanwhile, at the Loud House..._

Lynn was on her bedroom, seemingly talking with Haiku on the phone. And judging by her expression, and how angry Haiku sounded, the duo weren't... quite on friendly terms.

"So let me get this straight: Rather than doing the responsible thing and stop Lucy from potentially summoning a demon, you're gonna help her do exactly that?!" Haiku snapped from the other line. "And how did you get my number in the first place?!"

"Lucy gave it to me, duh," Lynn answered. "And besides, I do know there's a major risk at hand, and I made a deal with Lucy: Once things seem to be going out of control, we're going to stop things immediately."

"You should've stopped that nonsense the instant you found out about it!" Haiku snapped at the top of her lungs, only to calm down before adding, "And speaking of deals, make sure to keep in mind about how demons like to do deals: If whoever you're trying to summon tries to strike a deal with you, _refuse_ it without a second thought!"

"Of course we're going to refuse a deal with an stranger," Lynn rolled her eyes and sighed, "Do you really think we'd be stupid enough to do that?"

"Yes!" Haiku sternly and bluntly replied. "Especially Lucy! I mean, I don't want to offend her or anything, but she's still too young to fully comprehend what she's doing. Unlike you, who should understand what could go wrong, but don't care about it enough to try and stop it, Lucy's curiosity is getting the better of her. And if things do go wrong, you'll have nobody to blame, but yourself."

The jock managed to keep her cool up until the last sentence, which caused her to snap, "What are you talking about?! Lucy found the stupid book and got the idea in the first place!"

"Yes, but she also asked YOU if you could help her do the summoning," the poet on the other end bluntly answered, further angering the athlete. "Chances are, if you had said no right then and there, she probably would've saved it for another time. But no, for some unfathomable reason, you just _had_ to agree to helping her with the stuff!"

"Okay, now listen up, you paranoid excuse for a poet, I know the danger involved, but I also know Lucy much better than you do! I've lived with her for my entire life, basically! So I know what she would've done if I had said no; She would just have gone to the next sister until one of them agreed with her, or until she convinced herself to do it alone, which would be worse than if I did it with her!" Lynn snapped at the top of her lungs, growling as a vein seemed to be this close to popping out of her head. "Now, anything else you wanna say before I hang on you!?"

Then, with a very stern, serious tone, Haiku answered:

"This can only end badly, no matter how hard. And once it inevitably blows up in your and Lucy's face, I'll only have sympathy for Lucy. As for you, I will only hold the most stern, calm contempt I can gather, before I tell you one single sentence: I. Told. You."

Haiku audibly hung up before Lynn did it, and the athlete, remembering Lucy was waiting for her, took the moment to calm down before she went to help Lucy with the summoning. After all, what good could she be if she was blinded by rage? So she went to the room and walked to the goth's side.

"Okay, Lucy, our other sisters are busy with their own business, and I already talked with your friend on the phone, so we're all alone to perform this ritual or whatever," Lynn explained as she sat next to her gothic sister. "You know, you still have time to give this whole idea a second thought, and throw it all away before it's too late."

Lucy sighed and glanced at the book, prompting Lynn to put a hand on her shoulder and state, "Listen, I just want to make sure you really think this is the best. This is something that could very well backfire so badly in our face and blow our minds like the other day. We're trying to deal with things we don't really understand. It's a big risk."

"So was having nearly a dozen of us, and yet Mom and Dad took it and managed to work around it and live to tell the tale," Lucy answered as she opened the book. "And we didn't have our souls are still anchored to this world after we fought our doppelgangers. If we endured that, then summoning something from beyond this world and come out alive should be a walk in the cemetery, right?"

"Alive, most likely, if we play our cards right," Lynn remarked, only to look elsewhere as she thought about another thing. "Unscathed, though-"

"I found the page!"

Lynn looked back to Lucy and got a clear look at the page, depicting the pair of Proto-Lucy and Proto-Lynn.

 _Back at the Sweetwater Mansion..._

"Well, hello there, I was expecting you to come eventually," Lindsey greeted at her visitors. "You're the ones who agreed to come here, right?"

One of the two people nodded and said, "That's right. I'm Carlota Casagrande."

And the other lifted her dress a little and bowed elegantly. "My name is Leni Loud, one of Lola's older sisters, and we're, like, here to help you with something."

However, despite the showcased good manners, Lindsey wasn't quite trustful of Leni yet. "You introduce yourself as one of Lola's sisters, and you expect me to accept your help? Even more so when I've dealt with her for about a year or so now?"

"I was just proving how me not being the sharpest tool in the shed isn't just talk," Leni shrugged and walked to the exit. "However, if you totes don't want any help in defeating Lola-"

"I'm not participating in the beauty pageant she's going to go, doctor's orders," Lindsey stated. "But, assuming I was, why would you, of all people, help me?"

"'Cause we three share the same goal: Teach Lola a lesson," Leni put a hand on Carlota's shoulder. "And Carlota over here may have just the thing needed to make that come true."

The Latina reached for her back, and pulled out a copy of the Ars Loudia, making Lindsey raise an eyebrow. "Using this book, we can summon my master into this world, and she'll most likely be willing to help you deal with Lola."

Lindsey raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."

Concurrently, at the Sweetwater mansion and the Loud household, the rituals for the summoning were prepared: Lucy and Lynn traced an eye-like symbol on the ground, while Leni and Carlota drew a diamond. Some candles were lit for Lynn and Lucy's ritual, and glitter was spread for Carlota and Leni's ritual. Finally, Lucy and Lindsey stood in front of the symbols and extended their arms forward as the symbols on the ground began glowing.

Lindsey shouted:

"Gorgon with eternal memory, I summon thy, Gremory!"

And Lucy shouted:

"With a blank state of mind, come forth, Vine!"

And then, the symbols glew even brighter as a pillar of light came out of them, somehow going through the ceiling without actually destroying them. And then, from those same pillars, seemingly formless... blobs of something materialized, before taking on a humanoid shape.

Eventually, they fully formed and the pillars vanished, allowing the summoners to realize one thing:

Proto-Lola and Proto-Lucy had been successfully summoned.

- **Next Chapter Preview** -

"Hi everybody, Lynn here."

Haiku flinched, and generally looked intensely worried as she talked with Tabby and Polly, before outright getting on Polly's back.

"So, what I'm about to tell you might be a little upsetting,"

Meanwhile, in another location, Lynn Sr. and Rita stood alongside Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Shrinivas, Mrs. DiMartino, and Coach Pacowski as they watched two monitors, one represented with a skull and another represented by a diamond, blaring.

"I helped Lucy summon her counterpart from our copycats, the progenitors,"

The team looked up to see the monitor come out of the ceiling, and then it cut to the Loud house, where Lynn stood in front of a terrified Lucy as Proto-Lucy dusted herself.

"And I know that's terrible, tell me something I don't know..."

A quick cut was made to show Lindsey and Proto-Lola exchanging looks, with Proto-Lola looking a bit upset about the staring. Then it cut back to show Proto-Lucy talking with Carol, who was being restrained by giant hands made of darkness.

"But the good news is, Lucy's counterpart seems to be reasonable, for some reason..."

Proto-Lucy pointed at Lucy, who flinched but listened as her counterpart said her deal.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Proto-Lucy went close to Lucy, and touched her stomach before speaking some more. And then she suddenly grabbed Lucy by the neck of her dress and snapped at her.

"A Helping Hand, and a Healthy Beating?! Proto-Lola's Advice and Proto-Lucy's Proposition!"

Back with Lindsey and Proto-Lola, the prototype diva spoke some more before extending her hand towards Lindsey, who narrowed her eyes.

"Don't miss it!"

For the final scene, Margo's shown to speak with Proto-Lucy, with the latter smirking with malice as she answered back.


	11. Vine and Gremory

**Hello, Exotos here. Before we begin with the review responses, I'd like to mention that at the very end of this chapter, there will be a message written by A Hopeful Observer, and I hope you read it and understand.**

 **Now, to the reviews:**

 **1) Nobody245: Welp, time for questions to come flying, buddy!**

 **2) GennaiArakida-XIV:**

 *** YOU BET IT HAS!**

 *** Calliope? She's a real person... she just isn't around anymore.**

 *** Trust me, Haiku will give Lynn a piece of her mind if needed.**

 *** Summoning device? Close, but no cigar.**

 *** And it'll just get scarier down the line. HAHAHAHA!**

 ***Yeah, poor girl.**

 **3) Finnjr63: More interesting stuff coming up!**

 **4) ChernoMan:**

 *** Yeah, let's see how badly things muck up.**

 ***She's a ticked off girl. Ticked off people don't think about what they say.**

 **5) animehero1000:**

 *** Penelope and Clyde have a special relationship, being "spouses" in a sense, with Clyde being the passive Father and Penelope the frustrated Mother, so no, the interaction they had is exclusive to each other.**

 *** Questions will be given. Answers? I dunno about that.**

 **6) LoudAutomata16: I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far! I hope you enjoy the ride, 'cause this is gonna last for a long time.**

 **7) Observant Guest:**

 *** Penelope as a Well Intentioned Extremist? Sounds spot-on to me. And yeah, if any characters in the fic has common sense, knows what Lincoln did, and hasn't been brainwashed to worship his divine dong or whatever, don't expect them to think highly of him.**

 ***Proto-Lucy's really more of a set up for the future. How so? Read to find out.**

 ***As for the birthmark question, I wanna point out that I find it funny how you mentioned Liam, Hattie, Zach, and Renee, since they didn't even appear in the chapter:**

 **** Liam, paw, on his arm.**

 **** Hattie, square, on her chin.**

 **** Zach, flower, on his left cheek.**

 **** Renee, skull, on her left palm.**

 **** Papa Wheelie, Flat Tire, and Rusty Spokes all have a fist birthmark, the Lynn caste symbol, and it's located in the navel, right eye, and back hand respectively.**

 **** Rocky, a skull, on his chest.**

 **8) Hatoralo: Read A Hopeful Observer's message, buddy.**

 **And now, to the chapter proper!**

* * *

 **Episode 11: A Helping Hand, and a Healthy Beating?! Proto-Lola's Advice and Proto-Lucy's Proposition!**

* * *

 _The Poetry Club..._

Mere moments after the summoning happened, the events were felt from two particular places. The first was the poetry club, where Haiku gasped and took a look at her surroundings worriedly. This caught Polly and Tabby's attention, who were sitting on the show stage, playing their instruments for practice.

"Haiku, what is it?" Tabby asked as she and Polly paused and walked closer to the scared girl, "Is something wrong?"

"Oh, something's wrong, Tabby, something's horribly wrong!" Haiku answered, clutching her stomach and shivering. "A being... no, a thing beyond this world was just summoned. And it just had to be done in a way that can only end in misery for the summoner!"

"Something got summoned? You really buy into that garbage?" Polly asked, folding her arms as she asked, "I mean, even if bringing some monster from heck was possible, where is it even coming from?"

Haiku thought about it clearly, so as to not make a mistake, and she immediately managed to notice that the being's signal came from one place: The Loud House. And this wouldn't be so bad if she hadn't had a phone call with Lynn earlier about the summoning, giving her an idea of why that was the case.

"Polly, I'll explain along the way, but we need to head to the Loud house right now!" Haiku told the roller skater, walking closer to her before getting on her back. "Do you have the energy to go straight to the house?"

"Why do you even bother getting on my back before letting me answer? I can always just say no, you know?" Polly growled, with Haiku silently mimicking Polly's mouth in a mocking way as she added, "Besides, how do you expect me to take you to a place I've never been to before?"

"I'll guide you to the house, okay!?" Haiku yelled at the top of her lungs, before raising her arm. "And the longer we stay here arguing over pointless things, the less time we'll have to prevent something dangerous from happening, so let's go!"

Haiku slapped one of Polly's butt cheeks, and the girl neighed like a horse before making her birthmark glow, allowing her to use her super speed, which she used to zoom out of the club in an instant. This left a line of a burning trail, and a worried Tabby behind.

"Geez, she didn't even ask for my opinion on the matter," Tabby remarked as she walked to the fire extinguisher. "I hate when she does that."

 _Then, with Mr. and Mrs. Loud..._

Rita looked around the building, while her companions-Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Shrinivas, Mrs. DiMartino-and her husband remained on their seats, though at least Shrinivas looked up for a brief moment.

"Did anybody else feel that?" Rita asked, turning to her business partners as she added, "Please tell me I wasn't the only one who felt that."

"Well, what are you talking about exactly, honey?" Lynn Sr. asked, forming a nervous smile. "What did you feel?"

"It felt like something was summoned. You know, like someone arrived after being sent a summons order, but in a more supernatural sort of way," Rita explained, scratching her head as she thought about it a bit more. "And for some reason, I felt like it was of the progenitor known as Gremory, too-"

"If that's the case, then why even ask us if we felt it?" Mrs. DiMartino sternly pointed out, raising an eyebrow and folding her arms as she scoffed, "Did you seriously forgot that, as far as we know, you're the only one of Gremory's caste in the organization?"

To prove her point, DiMartino, Shrinivas, Johnson, and Lynn Sr. revealed their birthmarks, located in the chest, forehead, under the right eye and left ear, respectively. This caused DiMartino to add:

"I mean I'm from Samael's caste, Shrinivas' from one of the traitor's caste, and Agnes and your husband's from Zagan's caste, did you seriously think any of us would feel your progenitor being summoned?"

And then Mrs. Johnson realized something. "Didn't we leave Pacowski in the room built to detect a progenitor's summoning?"

Suddenly, the alarms blared a hot pink color, followed by a grey color, rinse and repeat, and DiMartino threw an angry look at Johnson before the team headed to the room the redheaded woman just mentioned.

Once there, the first thing they saw Pacowski standing in front of ten monitors, with the ones with a diamond and a skull symbol on their screen being the only ones blaring.

"Warning, Progenitor Gremory and Vine have been summoned." the alarm voice, which sounded oddly feminine and... nasally, stated in a robotic tone. "Repeat, Progenitor Gremory and Vine have been summoned."

"Did the system detect it just now?" Mrs. Johnson asked as she went to Pacowski's side.

"Yes, I was just sitting here, checking the monitors around the building, and then out of nowhere, the they lit up and I sounded the alarms right away!" Pacowski answered before showing the information to the team. "And according to the sources, the summoning of Gremory happened at the Sweetwater Mansion and the summoning of Vine happened... at Rita and Lynn's house."

"Our house?!" Lynn Sr. exclaimed, walking forward and checking the information on the screen. "But how could that happen?! The only way for that to be possible is if somebody there found the Ars Loudia-!"

Everybody flinched and immediately got an idea that put all eyes on Rita.

"Look, I know that it was my job to be vigilant for any copies of the Ars Loudia, precisely so this didn't happen, so I can see why you would blame me for the summoning," Rita stated, looking around the room worried. "However, I made sure I didn't miss any of the books. Trust me, I made sure to not leave any Ars Loudia in any nook or cranny in the house, honest!"

"I'm afraid she's telling the truth."

Everybody looked up to see part of the ceiling opening, allowing the monitor from before to come out, then turn on before saying, "The internal scans of the house reveal no physical copies of the Ars Loudia exist."

"See? I didn't mess up this time!" Rita proudly stated.

"However, this doesn't really explain how the summoning could even happen then," Mrs. Shrinivas stated.

"Vine planned for it."

Everyone looked around for the source of the voice, until they noticed a man was suddenly right next to Pacowski, his elbows on the desk as he watched the blaring screens, arms folded. The man was very skinny, almost malnourished in a way, with messy blonde hair, and eyes with black sclera and tiny, pink pupils.

"She's known as the progenitor of literature for one thing. She has the power of writing, memorizing, and creating any and all literature in the universe, and she doesn't even need to be in a physical plane to do it."

Rita and Lynn Sr.'s eyes slowly grew wider as the man continued his explanation:

"Wherever she is, whenever she wants, if she desires to write a poem, a magazine... an Ars Loudia copy, she can do it, and unless we develop a way to cancel her ability to write in an extradimensional, non-linear manner, there's nothing we can do about it, but hope for the best."

"Please pardon him, he can't help but tell his stories once in a while, prompted or otherwise," the computer said before "moving" closer to the man. "And if you're wondering who he is, this is Greg, the organization's janitor. Say hi, Greg."

The man remained silent.

"Well, hi to you too," Rita sternly "greeted" in return, before focusing on the computer. "So, which summoning are we supposed to deal with? Vine's or Gremory's?"

The computer turned to Mrs. DiMartino and ordered, "Mrs. DiMartino, as part of the Luna caste, you have the ability to channel your energy into your voice, which is capable of propelling people from one location to another with great precision. With that in mind, please prepare your voice to send the Louds straight back into their house."

DiMartino threw a smug look at the Loud parents. Mostly Rita. "Ohoho, trust me, I'm gonna make sure I'm fully prepared to do this."

"As for you, Mr. and Mrs. Loud, you should get prepared for departure. A shuttle will be provded for your departure, since it has been proven that the rate of survival of a normal, non-enhanced human to survive travel through such intense screaming, is 1 to 10."

"Wait, you're sending us straight back to our house?!" Rita snapped. "We're not even going to discuss this?!"

The lanky Greg turned his chair around and, with a stern look, growled, "Mrs. Loud, your own children are in grave danger, and as a mother, you should know that whenever your children are in danger, your first instinct should be to go try and protect them, provided you have the ability to do so."

Greg narrowed his eyes. "And from what I can see, there's nothing stopping you from going to their aid."

Everybody turned back to the Loud parents as the computer stated:

"It has been decided, then. Mr. and Mrs. Loud. Prepare yourself to embark right back to your house. You already know where your suits are, and if you try to change anybody's mind about this, an appropriate punishment will be delivered to you right away. So don't keep anybody waiting."

 _And right back at the Loud house..._

Lucy and Lynn stood their ground as Proto-Lucy landed on the ground and dusted herself, sporting the same smug smile she had on her face during the beating she and her sisters gave to the Loud sisters. Not only that, but for some reason, she felt... casual, almost as if she wasn't particularly impressed or surprised that she was summoned.

What was surprising, though, were the pets barging into the room and barking, hissing, and throwing angry noises at the prototype. All Proto-Lucy had to do to get rid of them was flash a sadistic smirk, and the animals ran away as fast as they could, tails tucked between their cheeks.

"So, we meet again, Ariel and Camael," Proto-Lucy remarked as she stepped out of the symbol, and looked back at the duo. "But you do realize I have to ask why you even summoned me in the first place? I mean, the last time you met my siblings was so recent, shouldn't you be making sure you don't meet them ever again?"

"Don't think you can act smug right now, Not-Lucy!" Lynn snapped, giving the lookalike the pointer finger. "We summoned you, and by ritual laws in the book, that means that you must obey us until the contract expires. You take orders from us!"

"Quite the contrary, dear Camael; You may have summoned me, but that doesn't mean you can just boss me around. If you anger me too much, I'll make sure you see wish you had treated me with respect," Proto-Lucy chuckled. "Speaking of which, did you prepare your propitiation?"

Lynn tilted her head. "Propiti-what now?"

"An offering to appease a being of higher caliber like a god or something," Lucy answered, getting the athlete's attention. "Lynn, please tell me you have something to give her. Preferrably something that'll make her happy."

"And how am I supposed to know what sort of gifts will make that thing happy?!" Lynn snapped at the goth, pointing at the prototype poet as she added, "She may look like you, but we can't confidently believe that whatever makes _you_ happy will make _them_ happy!"

"Hey, want a hint? I don't like being summoned without knowing why I was summoned in the first place, and none of the other progenitors like this either," Proto-Lucy sternly growled, getting the duo's attention. "As for the gift, It's okay, you already have just the thing to appease me!"

"Wait, really?!" Lynn exclaimed, earning a simple nod from Proto-Lucy. "Oh man, that's a relief."

Lucy stepped forward and asked, "And what is that gift you mentioned?"

Proto-Lucy turned to look at Lucy. "My eyes."

 _Back at the Sweetwater Mansion..._

Proto-Lola stretched for a moment while Leni and Carlota watched her, and Lindsey stood nearby, shivering a little as she immediately noticed how alike Proto-Lola was to... well, take a guess.

" _So, this is the progenitor known as Gremory?_ " Lindsey thought, clutching her chest as she felt her heart start beating faster than usual. " _But why does she look so much like Lola? And what can she even do to help me out?_ "

Suddenly, Proto-Lola turned to look at the redhead, and her calm, yet subtly angry facial expression pierced straight through Lindsey's emotional defenses.

Lindsey flinched for a brief moment before regaining her composure, hoping the interdimensional diva hadn't noticed. Not helping matters was Proto-Lola laughing like a member of royalty afterwards, then leaning closer to the redhead's face...

"You don't have to be afraid of my presence, darling," the proto-diva bluntly stated with a reassuring tone. "I may be an impossibly gorgeous angel, immaculate gift of beauty itself, and beacon of so many things I can't even be bothered to remember, but that doesn't mean I'm your enemy. If anything, you summoned me for a reason, and I'm willing to work with you as long as you provide said reason."

Then the prototype diva turned to look at Leni and Carlota. "But first, I need to ask who are the girls with you," Proto-Lola folded her arms and smiled. "After all, I haven't seen either of them in my life."

Proto-Lola threw a wink at Carlota, who only tilted her head and raised an eyebrow as Leni said:

"I'm Leni Loud, and this is one of my brother's friend's cousins, Carlota..."

Leni paused, then turned to the girl before nervously saying, "Casachica, right?"

Carlota gasped and slapped Leni as hard as she could, without potentially killing her. "How dare you!?"

"Please don't start fighting, I don't want to give Chandler the trouble of having to clean up your mess," Lindsey stated before turning back to Proto-Lola, who held back her laughter. "So, these two told me that you could give me advice of some sort."

"I can... for a price," Proto-Lola leaned closer and grabbed Lindsey's cheek. "In exchange for advice, I want to see your face. After all, I can sense you're from my caste, and in my caste, each members' beauty should always be on full display."

Lindsey slapped Proto-Lola's hand away, and it only took a small glare from the primordial diva to make Lindsey nervously explain herself, "I-I'm not exactly comfortable with revealing my face yet. The doctor was very clear that I must-"

"Well, your doctor was definitely not a professional," Proto-Lola shook her head in disappointment. "The Gremory caste' physical body has been made in such way that any and all disfigurement, that isn't outright losing limbs, can be healed in a matter of minutes to hours. I'm sure your face is perfectly fine."

Without letting the girl say anything, Proto-Lola grabbed the bandages, then seamlessly pulled all of them out, revealing Lindsey's current face to the trio. And though Leni gasped and Carlota flinched in shock, Proto-Lola... remained still, almost as if Lindsey's face had caught her off-guard. And why would this be the case?

Because Lindsey's face looked just like Lola's.

"I know, why does my face look so much like my most hated enemy's face? That's the first question anybody would ask," Lindsey guessed, earning no response from the prototype at all. "Thing is, I... don't really remember either. Maybe I was just angry at the fact I got tricked by Lola, maybe I wanted a reminder of the sort of person I could've become-"

Proto-Lola smiled, "Or, perhaps, you want to show Lola the person she could've been?"

Lindsey raised an eyebrow, prompting the proto-diva to explain, "Let's not mince words here: Lola's a jerk, and one of the worst kinds of jerks, the kind that do everything they can to achieve whatever goal or prize they have in mind, regardless of the value of said prize. And in Lola's case, the prizes she's always after... mean absolutely nothing."

"Look, I don't wanna act like I'm on Lola's side, but most beauty pageants give prizes in cash money and or objects that could be used or sold for equal value," Lindsey retorted, with Carlota and Leni exchanging worried looks as Proto-Lola raised an eyebrow. "With a family as big as hers, those prizes should mean something, right?"

"Not when said prizes are, like, lost very soon afterwards," Leni sorrowfully answered. "If she gets money, she either wastes it on frivolous stuff to make herself look glamorous, or if she gets objects, she just crams them into a house that's already in desperate need of more space."

"That does make me wonder; even if you only ever get second place, you still got some prizes, right?" Carlota asked, scratching her chin and putting a hand on her hip. "What did you do with them?"

Lindsey looked at the ground and clasped her hands, only to quickly look away the moment she looked like she was about to talk.

Leni and Carlota seemed a little worried, but Proto-Lola was more accepting, saying, "It's alright, sweetheart, I'd probably have to stop you anyway since there's one thing I need to ask."

Proto-Lola sternly scowled at Leni and Carlota, "Why was I summoned in the first place?"

Carlota gently jabbed Leni in the shoulder, almost as if she was asking her to explain. Leni, however, just shot an "are you serious?!" look at the shapely Latina before jabbing Carlota in return, though with some strength to her jab.

The girl returned the jab, and it eventually devolved into Leni and Carlota getting into a big ball of violence, where they started beating each other up while Lindsey and Proto-Lola watched, the former in confusion, the latter in disappointment.

"Typical fashionista; They get the most handsome, sexy bodies imaginable, but their brains practically get squished into the size of a peanut," Proto-Lola mused, folding her arms and shaking her head. "Never follow their example, Lindsey."

"Trust me, I won't," Lindsey turned to the prototype diva and explained, "I summoned you with the help of these two because they told me you could help me deal with Lola."

Upon hearing that, Proto-Lola's frown slowly turned into a smile and her look became a lot more devious, giving Lindsey a pretty good idea of what she was going to say next:

"Alright then, but under one condition..."

 _Back at the Loud house..._

Lucy and Lynn stood in shock as they still tried to process what Proto-Lucy had said, all while the progenitor herself stood nearby, arms folded behind her back as she impatiently waited for the duo to return to reality. And when she realized they weren't coming back anytime soon, she snapped back to the world with a stern statement:

"Listen up, just because what I said might be hard to understand, doesn't mean you can just zone in front of me. I mean, you already wasted my time by summoning me, and wasting my time processing what I'm telling isn't gonna earn you my good side. So you better stop wasting my time before I shove you through a realm of nightmares!"

"Y-Your eyes?" Lucy asked, backing away until she was behind Lynn before asking, "W-What are you talking about?"

Proto-Lucy slowly flew down into the ground, only to partially phase through it before stating, "Oh, my sweet little Ariel..."

Then, she phased out of the ground behind Lynn and then slowly twisted her head all the way to the left to look at Lucy. "You're clearly too naive for your own sake."

Lynn and Lucy flinched and backed away from the primordial poet, with Lynn forming a pair of fists as Proto-Lucy turned her body all the way to the right, returning her head to It's "original" position.

"You know how people sometimes say, "They have your eyes" in response to how a baby looks? In your case, It's literal," Proto-Lucy walked towards Lynn and Lucy in a slow, menacing manner. "You see, you were born with no eyes, so Lincoln ripped mine right out of their sockets, and planted them right into your sockets, not knowing that by then my eyes were frozen in a perpetually traumatized state."

"Huh, guess we now know why your stare freaked out Mom and Dad so much," Lynn quipped, earning a look from both Lucy and her prototype counterpart. "What? I'm only trying to lift the mood."

One second of silence later, Proto-Lucy literally slapped Lynn so hard, she crashed through the walls of the house, and finally crashed through Mr. Grouse's house, right into the living room where she fell unconscious soon afterwards. And as Proto-Lucy watched the resulting shapes on the broken wall, a portal opened close to Lucy, and from there came out a pair of arms similar to Carol's.

"Alright, now that Camael's dealt with," Proto-Lucy turned back to her "daughter". "How about we-"

However, by the time she fully turned around, Lucy was nowhere to be seen, with the portal the arms came out of closing soon afterwards. Not that this stopped Proto-Lucy from simply chuckling and following the duo... by phasing through the floors until she landed at the basement.

Once there, she silently saw as Carol snapped at Lucy, shouting, "Why the heck is your counterpart here?!"

Too startled to think of anything, Lucy twiddled her fingers and confessed, "I-I summoned her-"

"Why would you do that!?" Carol grabbed Lucy by the neck of her shirt and pulled her up. "Did you seriously think you could mess with someone like her after the beating she and her sisters gave to you and your sisters?! One wrong move, and she'll turn this place into a slaughterhouse!"

"Now there, you're kind of making stuff up," Proto-Lucy spoke, getting everybody's attention. "Now, if I had Lynn by my side, we could easily turn this place into a slaughter house. However, without her, I'd probably turn this place into a morgue instead."

Carol dropped Lucy and promptly created a portal right above Proto-Lucy, while the prototype just watched with curiosity as Carol moved the portal down, then suddenly closed it, slicing the proto-goth in half. However, just as she got ready to make another portal, an arm seemingly made of darkness "burst" from the ground and pinned Carol to the wall, making sure to use it's "fingers" to trap her arms as well.

With that done, Lucy slowly turned back to look at the remainings of Proto-Lucy, the upper half laughing to herself as black... things came out of the lower half and connected themselves to the upper half. They then pulled both halves together, and one spin later, Proto-Lucy was right back to normal as if nothing had happened.

"Oh Carol, of all the times you could show your Leni side, why did you choose to do it now? You're not making yourself look any cooler to my daughter here," Proto-Lucy shook her head in disappointment. "And besides, It's quite rude that you decide to take away Ariel just as I was starting to talk with her."

Proto-Lucy folded her arms and sternly stated, "This a matter of mother and bastard child, so if you wish to live, I suggest you stay out of this."

Carol could only growl as the hands restraining her held her tighter, just in case she tried anything funny. Then the progenitor walked towards Lucy, who fell to the ground and could only crawl back until she hit a wall, wherein she was easily cornered by her counterpart, who leaned closer to her and said...

"How about we make a deal?"

Naturally, Lucy was confused, so her counterpart explained thus:

"I know you may think I'm a lunatic madwoman who wants nothing more than to shower you with despair and fear, but I can be reasoned with. Besides, being my daughter, I can't just treat you like any other summoner I ever met."

By the end of the sentence, Proto-Lucy sternly thought, " _Although, admittedly, I had to be convinced to do this in the first place._ "

 _A long time ago..._

 _"Look, I didn't agree to summon you just to be insulted, you know?" Margo growled, a stern look on her face as Proto-Lucy raised an eyebrow. "I'm here to give you a suggestion."_

 _The prototype poet thought about the proposition for a moment, then nodded and sat down. "Very well, what's this mysterious proposition you wanna make?"_

 _Margo sat down and explained, "I understand that, as a higher being of unfathomable powers, mindset, and goals, that it may be pointless to try and argue with you, but I still think it would benefit you if you gave my idea a little bit of thought."_

 _"I'm fairly certain that I need to know what this idea even is to consider it," Proto-Lucy folded her arms. "Tell me this idea already before I rip off your eyes and add them to my collection!"_

 _"See? That's a big problem with all of you; One sentence later, and I can clearly see that the impression you give is that you're impatient and, most importantly, unreasonable," Margo added, getting the prototype to tilt her head in curiosity. "I mean, the only time people are ever going to summon you is if they're desperate and out of options."_

 _"But that's how It's always been," Proto-Lucy raised her arms. "Nobody ever summons us as their first option! It's only when the summoner's at their very lowest and desperate that we're summoned into this world!"_

 _"Still, don't you think it would make business a lot smoother if you tried to be reasonable?" the tomboy shrugged. "Like, rather than going straight into gouging eyes out, how about you give them a deal? Maybe you could have them do something for you in exchange for keeping their eyes?"_

 _"But my collection could always use a little extra pair of eyes!" Proto-Lucy whined, slamming her fists into the ground. "What if the summoner has a pair of pretty cute eyes, and I want them, but then they manage to fulfill the deal we made, allowing them to keep said eyes?!"_

 _"Like I said I'm just giving you a suggestion and I'm not saying that's how you should do things from now on," Margo got up and dusted herself. "I'm just saying that, It's easier to manipulate people for your own ends if they think they can trust you."_

 _Margo smirked. "Specially if they haven't met you in person before."_

 _Proto-Lucy remained frozen for a moment, then slowly smiled like a maniac before stating, with pure malice, "...I'm listening."_

 _Back in the present..._

" _To think I'd actually ever find some use for that brat's advice, life truly is filled with mysteries,_ " Proto-Lucy shook her head, then stated. "Alright, Ariel, listen up, 'cause I'm only going to say this once!"

The formerly shivering poet suddenly stopped, and turned to look at her counterpart. Just what the heck did she want this time?

"Listen, I've thought about this and, being your mother, treating you like I do everybody else just isn't fair," Proto-Lucy slowly walked forward to the Gothic poet. "After all, you may be the living proof of your father's cruelty and a complete mockery of everything I stood for."

The prototype crouched down and grabbed Lucy's cheek, with the poet flinching and starting to shiver once more as her "mother" stated:

"But I'm proud of your existence nonetheless."

Proto-Lucy reached for and touched Lucy's stomach.

"And I'll be even more proud of you, once you become a mother yourself," the prototype chuckled and grabbed Lucy's belly tighter. "And that will happen sooner than you think, my darling."

Lucy snapped and tried to free herself from the progenitor's grasp, but it was fruitless. "W-W-What makes you think something like that could happen?! How do I know you're not just saying that to freak me out!?"

The prototype's answer was blunt: "Time for us progenitors is but a screen: Instead of living through it, we see through it all the time of a universe."

And what she said next sent shivers down Lucy's spine:

"Which includes, the present, the past, and the future. And nothing, ever, is missed by our keen eyes."

Proto-Lucy backed away. "But let's get to the good stuff: I'll let you keep your eyes, but only if you manage to find me a pair of eyes I can take instead. The type of eyes don't matter...for the most part, whether they're from a girl or a guy, old or brand new, just find me a pair of eyes I can take instead of yours. I'll send one of my servants to go pick up the eyes you've gotten in about three weeks, so you got plenty of time to goof around like the little bastard you are."

Suddenly, the prototype grabbed Lucy by the neck of her shirt and pulled her towards her.

"But listen clearly, you little freak of nature! If the pair of eyes you give me are crystal eyes, or some other type of fake eyes, then I'll make sure to shove those same eyes down on your sockets, after I take mine back!" Proto-Lucy snapped at the top of her lungs. "Have I been clear?!"

Lucy shook her head violently, and Proto-Lucy then whispered, "And, just to let you know; I only considered being reasonable with you by a certain Margo's request."

"M-Margo?" the poet stuttered. "You mean, like one of Lynn's friends?"

Proto-Lucy nodded before she further explained with a smug tone. "If it hadn't been for her, you'd be blind by now. You should better get ready to thank her next time you see her, because trust me, your life _will_ depend on it."

With that said, Proto-Lucy charged a grey energy blast and then shot it, only for the blast to blow up and transform into a portal. She then dropped Lucy on the ground and left through said portal, which vanished from existence soon afterwards, followed by the shadow arms restraining Carol.

"Even at her weakest, I'm still no match for her shadow powers it seems," Carol remarked as she stretched, before running to Lucy's aid. "Lucy, are you okay?!"

"Yeah, I guess so..." the gothic poet stood up and hesitantly dusted herself. "Sigh. But, I'm not sure if I'll be able to fulfill the deal. And there's also what the others might think about what I did, which I didn't think about until now!"

"And you won't think about it either," Carol stated, getting Lucy's attention. "Nobody needs to know about what happened here, not right away anyhow. Just, take some time to think about what you'll say when everybody inevitably finds out what happened. Until then, you must stay calm and-"

Suddenly, the duo heard a crashing sound.

"What was that?" Lucy asked.

The pair exchanged worried looks and then promptly bolted upstairs. However, just as they were going to go to see where the crashing sound came from, Haiku and Polly barged through the door and stopped right before she crashed with Lucy, closely followed by Lincoln and the twins coming in afterwards. Needless to say, this left both Lucy and Carol stunned, the Goth having it worse than the teenager.

 _And then, back at the Sweetwater Mansion..._

Lindsey and Proto-Lola sat on the former's bed as the latter maintained a holographic map of sorts, which Leni and Carlota, both with notable bruises on their bodies, watched the map intently.

"And once the pageant begins, It'll be up to Carlota to act as a bouncer, while you act as a judge and Leni here acts in the background," Proto-Lola explained, with Leni and Carlota nodding in agreement while Lindsey tried to bandage her face back to normal. "Then, It'll only be a matter of time before Jophiel shows the cruel side she inherited from her father, and I'll make sure to punish her dearly for it."

"Is this "father" she's talking about the one the brute daughter's named after?" Carlota whispered to Leni, who just threw an "Are you for real?" look at her. "'Cause I've seen that guy before, and he doesn't seem to be that bad."

"Do yourself a favor and, like, just go with it," Leni replied with an exasperated sigh. "When it comes to divine family trees, they're so tangled, people go mad trying to make sense out of them."

"And that's basically all the plan is about," Proto-Lola extended her hand towards Lindsey. "We both share a common goal, and you seem to have promise, so if you don't want to convince me that you're a waste of time, accept the deal."

Lindsey glanced at the offering, then stated:

"Under one condition."

"Ugh, typical Lola caste, asking for too much before they even lift a finger," Proto-Lola growled in annoyance. "Fair enough, what's this condition?"

Lindsey narrowed her eyes.

* * *

- **Next Chapter Preview** -

"Hi everyone, Lola here!"

Haiku spoke with Lincoln, before Polly Pain grabbed Haiku and dragged her out.

"Yay! After several days, he beauty pageant's finally here!"

The scene changed to show the Loud family, minus Lisa and Lily, walking towards the building the beauty pageant would take place at. Lola spoke about it, while her exhausted siblings stood nearby.

"I can't wait to give this thing a shot! And best of all, a certain brat's nowhere to be seen!"

The siblings walked inside, and two scenes were shown: Lincoln meeting with Ronnie Anne at the front seat, and Luna and Lynn meeting up with Sam, Polly Pain, and Tabby.

"W-Wait a minute... is that... Lindsey Sweetwater?!"

Lola and Lincoln crashed close to a reporter lady, who crouched down and tried to interview them afterwards.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Up next was Lincoln meeting with the Biker trio, with one of them pointing at a certain redheaded, bandaged girl.

"The Beauty Pageant Finally Begins! The Unexpected Return of the Eternal Rival!"

Lindsey and Lola shared some words with each other before Lola went backstage with Lana, who she shared some words with.

"Don't miss it!"

Finally, Proto-Lola was shown watching something from afar, before she turned around and folded her arms.

* * *

 **Hi everyone I am A Hopeful Observer, Exotos partner in writing this fic. I don't plan on doing this very often, but I do wanna make some things clear going forward. Like Exotos said this story is gonna be on the longer side and that means we can't go revealing secrets right now. Fact is the story is updated on a weekly basis, so revealing too much now kills the intrigue and ruins the flow of the story. Don't worry though you will start getting answers before the halfway point. I can't tell you how many chapters the story will end up being, but in terms of plot progression we will be around 20% done when the P Lola arc closes out.**

 **Another thing, we do appreciate the reviews you post for this story. Believe it or not we do read and use them to better write this story. Heck one of you made a good point on where Exotos excels at writing and we are definitely taking it to heart. Still, you gotta remember that your ideas and suggestions are not necessarily gonna make it into the story overnight, but if it helps they will start to show themselves as we get deeper into the story. Hope you all continue reading this story and be sure to tell your friends XD**

 **P.S. For those of you who feel the story has a major plot hole involving the abilities of the Loud kids and the citizens of Royal Woods, I recommend reading the Caste Examination story. There is a hint that addresses this supposed inconsistency. If you figure it out please don't post anything in reviews, the main story will bring it to light soon enough.**


	12. The Pageant

**Alright, before we begin, you may have noticed that this chapter is slightly longer than the usual 6000+ words in each chapter. That's because there was a bit added to it that was originally supposed to be put last chapter, but A Hopeful Observer convinced me to transplant it to this chapter. It's right at the very beginning, so it should be easy to spot.**

 **And now, to the reviews!**

 **1) LoudAutomata16: "Cruel" side isn't quite accurate, they just want to show her true colors, how she truly feels. Which will be seen a little bit later down the line. And please, don't think Lindsey and Proto-Lola are EXACTLY on the same page here. And if you think Proto-Lucy's terrifying here, you've seen NOTHING.**

 **2) Nobody245:**

 *** As far as the Proto-Sisters know, the Lincoln they saw was their Lincoln, not the new one. To their knowledge, "Proto-Lincoln" is just hiding behind ignorance, running away from the mistakes he did. And that's why they acted hateful towards Lincoln.**

 *** Well, why would Proto-Lincoln stop at screwing over his sisters figuratively, if he could also do it literally? Specially since he now only sees them as toys that unleashed their "master's", aka his, wrath. The new sisters were born to replace the Prototype ones (Which probably would've happened anyway, because prototypes are only meant to test things out, rarely do they also count as the finished project)**

 *** When the p-sisters find out about Lincoln's identity (and how he's NOT the same as Proto-Lincoln), they'll probably be a bit more friendly towards him, but they still need to be wary, just in case P-Lincoln appears once more, or he starts showing traits similar to that jerk's.**

 **3) Finnjr63: Thanks.**

 **4) Omega Ultra: And things will only get crazier from here on out.**

 **5) Observant Guest:**

 *** Yeah, there's just so much I need to explore about that stuff XD**

 *** I had completely forgotten Lincoln had an "inner circle" of sorts. I may try to implement it later, but that will... well, be later.**

 *** Well, Shrinivas could ALSO have been a better choice, but you have to remember: She's a Kindergarten teacher. Sure, she acts strict with Lisa, but again, it's Lisa, you have to be strict with her or else she'll just do whatever she wants. As for DiMartino being harsh, there might actually be a reason for that...**

 *** "Love-hate" relationship... yeah, that sounds about right.**

 *** Yeah, after dragging the Proto-Lily arc in the previous version of the story, I talked with A Hopeful Observer about it, and we decided to shorten the length to about 10 chapters at maximum for each arc. This might mean some plot points I may have in my head could be compressed, or adapted out altogether, but hey, that's better than turning this fic into the "Drag-On Ball Z" of the Loud House fandom archive.**

 **6) ChernoMan: Yeah, you can't rush perfection.**

 **7) Animehero1000: Truth be told, Proto-Lucy would've forced Lucy to accept the deal anyway. She has a collection to maintain, after all, any eyes will suffice. And yeah, sometimes the healing factor can be a bit of a pain.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 12: The Beauty Pageant Finally Begins! The Unexpected Return of the Eternal Rival!**

* * *

 _Immediately back where we left off..._

"Lucy, are you okay?!" Haiku exclaimed in a panic.

"What happened here?!" Lincoln asked.

Lucy stuttered "uh" repeatedly, trying to figure out what she could say that wouldn't outright spill all of the beans. Noticing this, Carol quickly came to her aid.

"L-Listen, Lincoln, right now neither Lucy nor I are in a good mood, we're still... kind of stunned," Carol crouched down and put a hand on Lucy's shoulder. "You see, I was dumb enough to do the stupid thing to show Lucy why occult stuff could end up going wrong, and she wound up being terrified about it."

"That sounds like the responsible thing to do!" Lincoln argued back, while Haiku shot an angry look at Carol. "The intention, anyway. Showing her the stuff, not so good."

And then Polly Pain suddenly pointed out, "Where's Lynn, by the way?"

The pair flinched and exchanged worried looks as Haiku jumped off Polly's back and walked to Lincoln. "I may have an idea about what happened to her."

"What do you mean, Haiku?" Lincoln asked, tilting his head in confusion.

"Lincoln, I'm sorry to tell you this, specially since Lynn may not be thought of too highly in your house as it is" Haiku added, earning an annoyed look from Polly. "But the truth is, she called me sometime ago, to tell me that she and Lucy-"

Haiku paused, covered her mouth, then looked away before uncovering both her mouth and the truth:

"Tried to summon one of the progenitors!"

Though nobody was captivated by Haiku's melodrama, Lincoln was worried, "Wait, are you for real? How would they even do that?"

Haiku glanced at Lucy, who looked away and whistled while Haiku turned back to the boy and explained, "How they did it doesn't matter, what matters is that they did it! And though I have no idea what happened, wherever she is now, it must've happened because of her foolish decision to let Lucy do the ritual."

And then, Polly Pain barged in. "I'm sorry, Haiku, but you're making it sound like Lynn had it coming. Listen, Lynn did call you, yes, but she was also hesitant to do it, from the sounds of it. Her and Lucy's curiosity probably just got the best of them!"

"It doesn't change the fact that one of the progenitors was summoned," Lincoln said as he turned back to Lucy and Carol, while the twins heard something and went to the door. "Lucy, what progenitor did you summon? Did she do anything to you?"

Lucy stuttered once more, and Carol hugged her in an attempt to calm her down. And just as she seemed like she was going to get a panic attack, the twins returned, carrying an injured Lynn.

"Lincoln?!" Lynn exclaimed, getting everybody's attention before wincing. "Listen, I know you have a lot of questions to ask, but right now's not a good time to ask them-"

"Yeah, no joke, you look like you got a beating!" Lincoln ran to Lynn's side and checked her. "Did the progenitor do this to you?!"

Lynn managed to chuckle despite the pain. "So, you know about that little thing, huh?"

"You know what? Don't say anything, that'll just waste energy," Lincoln crouched down and took a closer look at Lynn's injuries. "You got beat up real bad."

Carol promptly grabbed Lucy and lifted her in her arms before stating, "Well, that makes it clear, then; Lola, Lana, come with me, we'll take Lynn and Lucy to their bedroom to rest."

The twins nodded, and the quintet immediately ran upstairs, leaving Lincoln, Polly Pain, and Haiku behind.

"Hey, I don't know exactly what happened, but I'd still like to thank you for telling me about what happened," Lincoln told the girls, before giving Haiku a confused look. "However, I can't help but feel like you were twisting your words to an extent, Haiku..."

"What? Me? Lying to you? I'd never do that!" Haiku replied, clasping her hands and turning her look elsewhere. "Specially because I'm doubtful Lynn would've told you anything."

Polly threw an angry glare at Haiku, then grabbed her by the neck of her dress and dragged her with her as she growled, "We need to go now, bye, Lincoln."

Before the guy could say his farewell, Polly and Haiku had slammed the door shut, and walked back to the poetry club before Haiku managed to break free from Polly's grip. And as she dusted herself and caught her air, Polly growled:

"Did you really have to make it seem like Lynn was willingly going through the idea?"

"Oh come on, it's not that much different from what actually happened," Haiku said as she dusted herself. "And besides, she could've just chickened out at the last minute like a normal person would, but if there's anything she's taught herself better than anything, is to do something stupid without thinking about the consequences."

Haiku turned to Polly Pain and smirked. "Sounds like a certain someone, doesn't it?"

Polly grabbed Haiku, this time by the neck, and held her face-to-face with her as the poet desperately tried to free herself. During this time, Polly sternly spoke:

"Watch your tongue, Haiku, 'cause next time, I won't let you get away with it."

"G-Got it!" Haiku replied.

Polly threw Haiku away off to a tree, and continued to walk back to the club. And as soon as Haiku got back up and caught her breath, she followed Polly, thinking to herself:

" _You know, Polly, you really should treat me with more respect, what with me being your boss and all. But, I'll let this one incident slide. I'll be the better girl and accept this was my fault, and I had it coming._ "

Haiku narrowed her eyes.

" _You're quite the enigma, Polly: You won't hesitate to call out Lynn from being a glory hog, and yet you also won't hesitate from defending her when she's being slandered? Well, this odd relationship you have with her will betray you, sooner or later. I can just feel it._ "

 _Sometime later, at the Loud house..._

The day of the beauty pageant had arrived, and most of the Loud siblings had gathered at the entrance to the beauty pageant's location. The only ones who weren't there were Lily, probably due to just being a baby, and Lisa, who was probably doing stuff at her laboratory.

One thing was clear, though: Nobody was more excited about it than Lola Loud. Not necessarily because they didn't care for it, but because the last few days were... exhausting: The summoning of Proto-Lucy and, unknowingly to the others Proto-Lola, the preparation for the beauty pageant, anybody but the most strong-willed of people would be left drained.

So how was Lola still standing was anybody's guess.

"This is it, everyone; The beauty pageant where we'll get Lincoln's dream crown!" Lola exclaimed, only to cringe for a second. "I still feel kinda weird saying it like that, but let's focus on the facts: I'm gonna go in there, I'm gonna whoop the competition's butt, and I'm gonna win!"

"And we'll be just there!" Luan shouted with excitement, giggling for a second before saying her usual, "Get it?"

"Sadly, we do, and that bothers us the most," Lucy answered before turning to her diva of a sister. "Lola, we have our own stuff to deal with, and our own priorities. Was it really necessary to drag us here, knowing that you're the only one who cares about the pageant."

"Ha! I'm not the only one who cares about it, Lucy!" Lola walked to Lincoln's side and clung to her arm. "Lincoln cares about it too! He has to if he saw the crown in his dream, especially if it was one of our weird lookalikes' possessions!"

Lola turned to her brother, and pulled the old "Puppy-Dog eyes" trick as she asked, "You do care, right, Lincoln?"

Luckily, the boy didn't need to answer, since something caught everybody's attention. This something was a news crew standing close to the entrance to the building itself, seemingly doing a news report on the event.

"Greetings, Royal Woods, and welcome to your daily delivery of Royal Woods News," Catherine greeted to the camera man. "I'm Catherine Sweetwater, your local newswoman, and I'm here right outside the auditorium where Royal Woods' latest beauty pageant is said to be held."

Lincoln narrowed his eyes a little and tried to focus on remembering who the woman was, only to be interrupted when Lynn poked his shoulder and asked, "Is something up, Lincoln?"

"I don't know why, but that reporter woman looks... familiar, for some reason," Lincoln scratched his chin. "Like I've seen her before or something like that."

"I wouldn't worry about it. If you don't exactly remember where you saw her, it's probably nothing important. That's usually the case anyway," the athlete answered, before noticing Lola standing right next to Lincoln. "And if it is important, you know what they say; When in doubt..."

Lynn went behind Lola and grabbed and lifted her before shouting, "Throw Lola so she can soak up the attention!"

The jock threw the diva straight at the woman, only for Lincoln's eyes to briefly flash red before he, without even thinking for a second, dashed at seemingly the speed of sound, successfully catching Lola before she hit the ground.

Unfortunately, this also caught the reporter's attention.

"Oh hey, look who we got here," Catherine turned back to the cameramen and put a hand on Lincoln's shoulder as the duo got down and dusted themselves. "Here we have Lola Loud, a famous beauty pageant contestant, and her trainer and older brother Lincoln Loud. Say hi, you two."

And as the duo hesitantly obliged-Lincoln more so than Lola-Lynn and the rest of the sisters watched the scene with worry. Particularly Lynn.

"I swear, I wasn't planning for that to happen," the jock stated as everybody turned to look at her. "I was just hoping that I could pass Lola off to someone who wants to listen to her endless bragging and boasting."

Lucy promptly punched Lynn in the shoulder, though the fact it sounded more like she was punching a plushie toy made it clear it wasn't all that strong.

"Should we, like, do something?" Leni asked Lori, who was watching with an indifferent look. "I think Lincy and Lola would appreciate it."

Leni turned back to look at Lincoln, who was scratching the back of his head with a sheepish smile, and Lola, who was basically going on and on about her intentions, her motives, how she was going to win this beauty pageant, and so on and so forth. Judging by Catherine's neutral expression, she couldn't care less, though.

"Nah, they seem to have things under control," Lori shook her head. "Besides, if we wait a little longer, maybe Carol will be nice enough to take care of that reporter for us."

"Speaking of Carol, where is she?" Lana took a look around. "Wasn't she going to come with us?"

"She did come, she just..." Lori exchanged looks with Leni for a moment before she turned back to Lana, sporting a worried smile. "Has some business to take care of elsewhere first."

 _Speaking of business..._

Rita and Lynn Sr., wearing black uniforms with pink highlights for Rita and yellow highlights for Lynn Sr., were stationed behind the building of the beauty pageant, with Rita patroling the place for lookout, while Lynn Sr. just sat in place and watched his wife pace back and forth. There was a pod laying nearby, looking like it had crashed not too long ago.

"Honey, could you explain to me why are we still here?" Lynn Sr. asked, checking his surroundings. "Our kids are okay, I already checked everybody's signatures about a dozen times-"

"And if we go back to headquarters right now, Agnes is gonna scold us because we didn't try anything to stop the progenitors," Rita bitterly, and sternly, growled. "That's just how the organization works: You slack off at work, you get penalized. You don't do things the way they want you do them, you get penalized. You return before making sure the progenitor or breaker threat has been taken care of-"

"You get penalized, I know," Lynn Sr. sighed. "But we've been here for far longer than planned: We were supposed to check on our children, and return back to headquarters right away once we made sure everything was okay."

"But not everything's quite okay, honey," Rita replied as she folded her arms, then shook her head. "Don't you see? Not one, but _two_ of the progenitors were summoned, and a couple days afterwards, there's no signs of their forces anywhere? No champions, no followers, no eidolouds? Don't you think that's a bit suspicious?"

"As much as I hate to say it, she's right."

The duo turned around and Rita immediately aimed her right palm, which charged a pink energy ball as the couple saw that the voice had come from a portal... on the ground. And from said portal came out a familiar face: Carol, who was now wearing her normal clothes once again.

"Oh, it's just you," Rita said as she calmed down, and Carol stood up and dusted herself. "Of all the times you could pop out of nowhere, why did you decide to do it now?! And what do you even want?!"

"Nice to see you too, I'm totally not having second thoughts about literally helping you," Carol growled. "Anyway, I had a run in with progenitor Lucy and... I wasn't really able to do much to her before she incapacitated me. But, I know that the progenitor Lola could potentially attack during this beauty pageant, there's just no way that her crown would be a prize in something like this if she wasn't involved!"

"Ha! See, Lynn? Staying here was a good move after all!" Rita boasted, walking closer to Carol as she added, "Do you know when she'll attack, Carol?"

"I literally just arrived, do you really, like, think I'm going to figure that out in an instant?" Carol kicked Rita back to Lynn Sr. and snapped her fingers, closing the portal she came out of. "Sorry, but I mostly came here to help you just in case her forces decide to attack. And also, if you don't mind me asking, what are these eidolouds you're talking about?"

"Seriously? You've been working for the organization for who knows how long and you don't know what the eidolouds are?" Rita shook her head and rubbed her forehead. "Alright, I'll explain: "Eidolouds" is the name we use to call the "ghostly projections," or whatever they are, that are created from one of the progenitors' "Descendants," and sometimes the progenitors themselves, in order to keep other people at bay. They only ever summon eidolouds, however, if they believe the other people are worth distracting."

Carol raised an eyebrow. "So, in short, not only are we going to probably deal with a progenitor, and one of their "Descendants," but also ghostly projections of said descendants? And that's why you decided to remain here and waste your time, instead of checking up on your kids when you had the chance?"

"Yes," Lynn Sr. bluntly stated.

Rita threw an angry look at her husband, and Carol just sighed, "I know it's DiMartino's job to be harsh with you two, but you're such pathetic parental figures, it's not even funny, it's just tragic."

"You'd probably know that better than anyone."

Suddenly, the trio turned around, and next thing they noticed was that they were trapped in some sort of advanced... cave-place covered in gems of all colors, mostly pink or magentas. And on top of a wall sat a familiar figure on top of a throne made of diamonds and other equally expensive, glamorous gems: Proto-Lola.

"After all, neither of your parents were particularly good ones, Carol."

 _Meanwhile, back inside..._

The Louds arrived at the auditorium where the pageant would take place, and immediately took seats. Lori, Leni, and Lana sat on the back row, while Luna, Luan, and Lynn went to a middle row, where they saw some familiar faces.

"Sam?! Tabby?!" Luna exclaimed in surprise. "W-What are you doing here?"

"Because a good girlfriend would be there to support her significant other in their events, provided they're not busy that same day," Sam explained, putting her arms behind her head and crossing her legs. "Besides, I figured that exposing Tabby to some-"

"Don't listen to her, I didn't come here for what she was gonna say," Tabby interjected, causing Sam to flinch. "It's just that mom doesn't like it when I stay alone at home, and since Becky was busy for some reason-"

Suddenly, Sam boasted, "Not related to me this time, by the way!"

Tabby rolled her eyes and finished. "So I had no choice but to go with Sam."

Then the rocker turned to Polly and grabbed her hand. "At least I got Polly to keep me company right now."

"Wait, Polly's here too?!" Lynn exclaimed as she ran to the tomboy's side. "Don't tell me you're into this stuff!"

"Ugh, no way! I came here because Tabby asked, didn't you hear her say so?" Polly sternly answered. "Besides, since Giggles is too optimistic for her taste, and Haiku's a total hardhead, I'm the only one left she can count on."

"Okay then, I understand, I think," Lynn walked to the row behind the row behind Polly's seat. "I'm just gonna go sit here, and keep a close eye on you, just to make sure nothing bad happens."

As for Lincoln and Lola? The boy was heading for the front row, when the duo spotted a familiar trio waving at them: The biker trio. So they walked towards them and sat down, though Lola did so hesitantly.

"Oh hi, Ronnie, Cindy, Mindy," Lincoln greeted, earning a hug from the girls. "What are you doing here?"

"We were both asked to hand out invitations, and invited to come here ourselves," Cindy explained. "Granted, we're mostly here for you."

"If you hadn't accepted the invitation, we probably would've watched this on tv instead," Mindy added. "'Cause this beauty pageant is also going to be televised."

"So that's why there was a news crew outside," Lincoln remarked, exchanging surprised looks with Lola.

"That, and the one who set this up called them here."

The quintet turned around and looked at the person who spoke, who was Lindsey Sweetwater, with her face bandaged in the same it was when they saw her the last time. She also had a little badge on her chest that read "judge" in golden letters.

"The person who set up this beauty pageant has big plans for it, so they called the news crew to cover it when the things get underway," the bandaged redhead explained, swaying her hair to the right as she added, "By the way, name's Lindsey Sweetwater, one of the two main judges of this event."

"Are you the girl that Sweet Feet lost to in that beauty pageant a long time ago?" Ronnie nonchalantly asked, while Mindy and Cindy gave the redhead an angry look.

"You entered a beauty pageant and got beaten by Lindsey Sweetwater?!" Lola said, rubbing her forehead as she laughed out loud. "And here I thought you couldn't be any lamer."

Lindsey, likewise, quipped right in Lola's face. "He was a much better opponent in that one pageant than you've been in our entire history together."

"D-Defending him changes nothing!" Lola snapped as the biker trio laughed at her. "Even if you'll be a much harsher judge than I'm used to, that doesn't mean I'll have any trouble convincing the other judge to get on my side."

Lindsey smirked behind her wrappings. "Even when that same judge is the boy you have a crush on?"

Lola's look went from confident to horrified, which only worsened when Lindsey pointed at said judge, and Lola realized the redhead wasn't joking: Winston, the guy she was talking about, sat on the judges seat, at least until he noticed Lola and waved at her. This caused the diva's jaw to drop, and her to gesture Lana to come with her.

So the pair went backstage, leaving Lincoln and the trio alone with Lindsey.

"So, what have you been up to since that last beauty pageant?" Lindsey asked the boy. "You manage to put that blue dress and blonde wig combo to use?"

Lincoln frowned. "I'd rather not talk about it."

 _Meanwhile, in the backstage..._

Lola paced back and forth, biting her nails repeatedly as Lana sat nearby, scratching her chin as she thought about what her twin sister had just told her. And oddly enough, they were seemingly the only ones there, with no other contestants anywhere.

"So, just so I understand, you'll have to give it your all in a beauty pageant where the judges are; Your eternal rival who has every reason to judge you harshly and the guy who you have a crush on, both of whom are impossible to trick or manipulate into giving you an easy victory, and the beauty pageant is going to be televised," Lana recapped, growing slightly worried as she paused, then added, "Lola, are you sure It's a good idea to go on?"

"I have to; the crown is in there, and Lincoln saw it in a dream. It has to be important!" Lola answered with a determined tone of voice. "And besides, it's such a pretty crown too, so winning it couldn't hurt, would it?"

Lana folded her arms and put up a stern look. "Lola, be honest with me: Would you even bother with the beauty pageant, with all the stuff said before, if the crown wasn't there?"

Lola narrowed her eyes and sighed, "Fine, I'll admit it, I probably would tuck my tail between my legs and run away if the crown wasn't there: My crush and enemy as judges, enemies I can't intimidate, the fact everybody will be watching me out of my comfort zone, it's just too much to think about! But I still have to do it, not only for myself-mostly-but also for Lincoln! I mean he can't even beat Lindsey for crying out loud!"

"Lola, this is a bad idea, you even just admitted it," Lana put a hand on her twin sister's shoulder. "Just tell the judges that you're having second thoughts and-"

"I can't get out of this, it would ruin my perfect record of beauty pageant attendance!" Lola hastily added, covering her sister's mouth. "Face it, Lana, one way or another, I can't back out of this pageant. I need to participate and try my hardest to win it, that's the only thing I can do, and the only thing you should be doing is cheering me on!"

"I thought you wanted me here so I can give you my opinion on this," Lana narrowed her eyes. "Why would you tell me all about it if you're just going to blow me off and participate anyway?"

Lola narrowed her eyes in return, only to close them and stand up before walking out, not even sparing the decency to give her sister an answer. And as she left, Lana looked at her with a look of disapproval, which remained until she heard someone say:

"Aw, sibling rivalry, quite a classic."

The tomboy flinched and took out a wrench, which she held like a sword as she turned around... and saw it was only Clyde and Penelope nearby. Now, she didn't mind Clyde being there, but she gripped her wrench harder upon seeing Penelope.

"Nice to see you too, little puppy," Penelope greeted, feigning a friendly look. "How's your sister's tongue doing? Has it healed yet?"

"Why do you want to know?" Lana took a step forward and aimed her wrench. "So you can hurt her even worse than before!?"

"Yes!" Penelope excitedly answered.

"Penelope, please don't get us into trouble," Clyde walked past the girl and calmed Lana down. "Listen, we're only here because Penelope's boss asked her to help with the pageant, and she dragged me into this mess. We heard everything, and we understand that you need your space, but Lola needs to be here in order to get prepared for the pageant. Do you think you could convince her to come back here?"

Lana thought about it for a moment, then lowered her wrench and walked back to do just that, but not before throwing an "I'm watching you" look and gesture to Penelope... who blew a kiss straight to Lana's direction.

 _Back with Lincoln..._

The boy bid farewell to the biker trio, who returned to their seats moments before Lincoln noticed another peculiar sight: Ronnie Anne, sitting at the far end of his row. So he got up and approached her.

"Ronnie Anne, why are you here?" Lincoln asked, getting the tomboy's attention. "And sorry to bring it up, but where's your collar?"

"My cousin Carlota said she was going to this beauty pageant, and I needed to come along and see what she's up to," Ronnie explained, gently rubbing her neck as she added, "As for the collar, she put it on my neck, and Bobby took it off before I left to go here. Apparently, the collar was still in it's experimental stage or whatever, so it wasn't safe to use it in the first place."

"And did your cousin know about those risks before taking the collar?" the boy asked, earning a somber nod from the tomboy. "Why would she even use it if she knew how risky it was, then?!"

"I don't know, okay?! All I know is that she's supposedly going to be on this beauty pageant because of something related to her boss," Ronnie looked at her arms, then turned them into knuckles and pounded them against each other. "And trust me, once I figure out where she is, and find a good place to do it, I'm going to give her a piece of my mind, and force her to tell me everything she knows!"

"Don't try to sound so harsh when you say that, please," Lincoln remarked, putting a hand on the tomboy's shoulder. "After all, last time I checked, aren't you trying to deal with your image as a bully?"

"Sorry, I can't help it," Ronnie folded her arms and shook her head. "I talk like this when I'm angry."

And as the duo talked about it, Tabby and Polly spotted them from their seat, and it wasn't long before they started feeling uneasy. Something that Luna quickly noticed.

"Is something wrong, Tabby?" the Loud rocker asked.

"Well, you see that girl up in the front row with your brother?" Tabby answered, pointing at the Hispanic tomboy and Lincoln. "I think I recognize who she is, and she's kinda-"

"Worrying you, right?" Sam suddenly asked, startling everybody. "Don't worry, Tabs, trusty old Sam's gonna take care of her!"

However, though Tabby tried to stop her, Sam got off her seat and walked off to the front rows, fully prepared to give Ronnie Anne a very important message. At least, that's what her proud mood implied.

"Howdy there!"

Lincoln flinched and hid behind Ronnie, who just turned around and looked up to see to who belonged the shadow that reduly looming over her. The person the shadow belonged to was Sam, who Ronnie didn't recognize, but who brought chills down Lincoln's spines.

"Uh, hi?" Ronnie greeted, raising an eyebrow. "Who the heck are you?"

Sam bowed down and boasted, "I'm none other than Samantha Swagger, legendary daughter of the one and only Mick Swagger!"

"Daughter of who?!" Luna shouted from her seat in shock, standing up in disbelief.

Then Sam turned to face Luna and blushed as she teasingly added, "And girlfriend of Luna Loud, also known as Lamp or "aaaagh!"

"Girlfriend of who!?" Luna yelled, her face turning red as steam burst out of her nostrils and ears.

Sam's blushing took a turn for the family side as she clasped her hands and turned to look at Tabby. "And sister to Tabby Swagger, fellow daughter of Mick Swagger!"

"Daughter of who?!" Luna shouted, turning her attention to the surprised Tabby.

"Calm down, Luna, you're scaring your friend," Luan said as she made Luna focus on her. "Just remember that-"

Then Sam nonchalantly added, "And also sister to Maggie Lopez-Swagger, another daughter of Mick unfortunately."

"Daughter of who?!" Luan yelled, jumping up her seat so high, she almost hit the ceiling before crashing back down.

This finally got on Tabby's nerves. "Sam, for dad's sake, stop being all piss and wine and deal with her already!"

"Fine, geez, no need to be so vulgar, sis," Sam rolled her eyes and folded her arms behind her back before crouching down to face Ronnie Anne. "Anyway, back on topic: My sister's a little bit worried about you simply existing up in here, because your kind are nothing but mindless brutes who abuse those weaker than them, and she's scared you'll make her your next target."

Tabby, Luna and Luan cringed at Sam's blatantly audible statement, though Polly at least decided to quip about it, "To be fair, she's not exactly wrong about any of those things."

"So, for the sake of us not having to deal with people who are different than us, I came here to tell you to go away," Sam poked Ronnie's forehead with her middle finger. "So please, if you could take your existence elsewhere, preferrably somewhere where we can't see your disgusting face, we'd really appreciate it."

"Something tells me she made that sound as uncomfortably offensive as possible on purpose," Ronnie whispered to Lincoln, who whispered back, "And something tells me she'll just bull her way out of refusing it if we point that out."

"Also, you only have five seconds to agree or disagree to the proposition, or else you'll force me to get on my bad side," Sam hastily added, summoning her furious look. "And if you disagree, I'll get to the bad side right away."

Ronnie actually seemed to be rather frightened by the statement, so she tried her best to keep her composure as she gave her answer:

"Okay, listen, clearly the better way of doing this would be for your sister and I to talk it out. I know I left this place with quite the reputation, but I'm past those days, really. If you just let both me and your sister to talk it out, I'm sure that-"

Suddenly, a large pink-yellow-light blue axe made out of energy came out of nowhere and loudly plummeted to the ground right next to Ronnie Anne's side, causing the girl to scream and Lincoln to jump right into her arms, while screaming even more like a girl than Ronnie.

" _Wait, Sam's got the touch, too?!_ " Luna thought in shock.

"Now that's an _axe_ ," Luan laughed, before grabbing Luna's arm. "But seriously, Luna, we gotta do something!"

Luna nodded, and she, Luan, Tabby, Polly, the biker trio, and even the judges left what they were doing and headed straight to try and stop Sam from hurting somebody with her freaking axe.

"Dude, whatever you're planning to do, don't!" Luna exclaimed, holding Sam's arms in place. "I'm sure that Lincoln and his girlfriend 'ready got the message!"

"Did they really, Lamp?" Sam ominously asked, throwing a stern look at Luna. "If that's the case, then why are they-"

Once she turned back, however, Lincoln and Ronnie were no longer at the spot, and the biker trio took it, while gesturing the blonde musician to not go after them. Luckily for them, Sam did seem satisfied at the duo's disappearence, so she walked back to her seat... and once she walked past Luna, she turned her energy axe into an energy leash, which attached itself to Luna's neck, forcing the girl to come with her. And of course, Polly, Tabby, and Luan tried to stop her.

 _Back with the not-lovebirds..._

Lincoln and Ronnie Anne stopped and caught their breath, briefly glancing at their surroundings to make sure that Sam wasn't following them. Although, they immediately got on the defensive when they heard someone coughing: More specifically, Lincoln hid behind Ronnie Anne as she got ready to pull off some sick judo moves.

However, they calmed down when they saw that, of course, it was just Clyde and Penelope.

"Clyde?" Lincoln blurted. "Penelope?"

"You're helping with this pageant too?" Ronnie asked, sounding clearly exasperated. "Why would you even do that? Specially with a jerk like Penelope?"

"I'm not here because I want to, I'm here to help Penelope with something," Clyde turned to look at Penelope with an annoyed look. "Chandler's busy dealing with some chores of his, so he can't help her with the beauty pageant. And she was pretty insistant that she needed to help with it."

"Hey, it's not my fault that you're one of my most trustworthy helpers," Penelope said in her defense as she checked the list on her clipboard. "Besides, didn't the deal we make was that, in exchange for serving me, I'd help you distance yourself from that Lori harpy you used to have a crush on?"

Clyde guestured Penelope to shut up, only for Lincoln and Ronnie to catch on to the implication:

"Used to have a crush on?" Lincoln repeated.

"Harpy?!" Ronnie said before laughing out loud. "Oh man, that's a good one. Specially 'cause it's kinda right."

"It's not what you think, okay?" Clyde vehemently stated. "Listen, we're only here because Penelope's boss or whatever asked her to help, and she needed some assistance. Why are you guys here?"

Ronnie stepped forward and exclaimed, "Because we were about to be killed by a crazy blonde rockstar's energy axe!"

"The rockstar she's talking about is Sam, by the way!" Lincoln quickly added.

Clyde's eyes widened, and he gestured Penelope to stay where she was as he went closer to Ronnie Anne and Lincoln. The trio wrapped their arms around their shoulders and spoke in private, first Lincoln spoke:

"I was talking with Ronnie Anne, hoping to figure out why she was even here-"

Ronnie Anne interrupted, "My cousin's apparently here, and I wanna have a talk with her."

"Mostly because she was the one who put the collar on her neck," Lincoln explained. "As for why she no longer wears it, her brother Bobby took it out."

"Great, nothing lifts the mood like some family drama," Clyde rolled his eyes. "Anyway, continue, what was up with Sam?"

Lincoln nodded and took a deep breath. "Well, while we were talking about her stuff with her family, Sam suddenly came up and asked Ronnie Anne to leave, though the manner in which she asked it was... rather upsetting. But she did get the message across."

"However, when I tried to reason with her, she pulled out an freaking axe made of energy and gave us a crazy look!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed, with slight fear hidden in her tone. "Lame-O and I knew that if we stayed any longer she'd probably kill us, so we had to run away as fast as we could!"

"Good lord, she has powers too?" Clyde asked, earning nods from the boy and tomboy. "Well geez, I had a feeling we shouldn't mess with her, but I didn't think she would go so far as to do that."

The trio separated after that, and Clyde said, "While I would do everything in my power to keep you safe from that crazy girl, I'm afraid you can't stay backstage, though. The contestants need to get ready here."

"Well, I'm not going back to where that psycho can find me: I need to be alive in order to confront Carlota," Ronnie stated, only to get an idea. "Come to think of it, have you seen Carlota anywhere? She has incredibly meaty legs, very wide hips, and a bad habit of using her hair as a weapon."

 _Speaking of Carlota..._

The thick teenager swung her hair like a whip against a mannequin shaped like Leni, which slowly fell apart as her strikes grew more and more ferocious, until it was laying in pieces on the ground.

And then someone yelled from far away, "Carlota, stop using your hair like a weapon and get over here!"

"I can't yet! I need to take out my frustrations on something first," Carlota grabbed the mannequin head and shouted, "And this is the only thing I could find!"

"We know you're angry, Carlota, but we don't have time to deal with that!" the voice shouted. "We need to talk with you about something related to the beauty pageant right here, right now, so get your butt to the meeting room before we send your boss' daughter to do so!"

The teenager flinched at the mention of her boss' daughter, so she shouted "Alright then!" before turning back to the mannequin and hissing "We're not done yet" with a stern look. She dropped the thing on the floor, and as she walked to the meeting room, there was only one thing on her mind:

This beauty pageant plan better be worth it.

 _And back with Proto-Lola and the trio..._

Carol cracked her knuckles, Lynn Sr. took out and calibrated a small gun that looked like a squirt gun, and Rita folded her arms and exchanged looks with the prototype diva. For some reason, the diva simply smiled and returned the look with a friendly vibe.

"Nice to see you again, Rita," Proto-Lola greeted, condescendence hidden in her tone. "How has the family been? Have your "daughters" been doing well? Is your "boss" still on good terms with you?"

Rita scoffed, "Well, she doesn't want to use me to incubate her babies, so there's that."

"I wonder if that's because she legitimately is on your side, or because you can't bear children anymore, making you worthless," the prototype diva sighed somberly. "I still can't believe she decided to join your stupid assistance."

"Resistance!" Lynn Sr. exclaimed.

Proto-Lola, however, paid no attention to him and rubbed her forehead. "First she betrays Lincoln before the fall, and now she betrays us by joining the enemy. The only consolation I can think of is that there's a chance that she'll betray you next."

However, just as Rita and Lynn Sr. got ready to strike, Carol stopped them, and pointed at the crown Proto-Lola was wearing. A crown that looked just like the one that was being offered as a prize.

"...The pageant crown is a fake, isn't it?" Rita growled, forming a pair of fists as she charged one of them with pink energy. "It's just an illusion that's so realistic, it just so happens to look like the real deal?"

"Yes and no: It's a fake, but it's not an illusion," Proto-Lola folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. "To use illusions would mean I need to use _her_ help, and I wouldn't even do that to save my life! No, the crown is physical, but it's just a bunch of talc held together until somebody's foolish enough to touch it."

"Talc?" Carol asked.

"It's a fairly weak gem-mineral-thing," Rita explained with a shrug. "Though usually not to the extent that it would shatter upon touch."

Rita turned back to the prototype, now with her fist fully charged. "Eitherway, if there's one thing that's going to shatter, it's your plan once we're through with you!"

"Ha, shallowly ominous!" Proto-Lola chuckled. "Alright then, but I got one question: Will you shatter my plan before you shatter _these_ bad girls?!"

Proto-Lola got off her chair and snapped her fingers, causing several humanoid figures to burst from the crystallized walls and leap straight to the trio. Carol immediately got in front of the couple and lifted her arms, creating a visible shield that not only prevented the beings from attacking, but sent flying right back to the walls with an electrical shock.

Carol kept the shield up as Rita and Lynn Sr. took a closer look at the humanoids. These basically looked like Lola lookalikes, but with lighter hair, two ponytails, and slightly pink-ish skin and body parts made of cristal.

"Eidoleias!" Rita shouted, recognizing both who the humanoids were and how to deal with them. "But if there are eidoleias in here, where's the Leia that they follow?"

The trio looked up, hoping they would see Proto-Lola still up above them, probably enjoying the sight. However, once they looked up, she was no longer there. In fact, one quick scan from Rita revealed she was nowhere around... wherever the heck they were.

As for Proto-Lola, she took one last look at the fight the trio had with the Eidoleias, and turned around and folded her arms as she telepathically communicated with her "minions":

" _Everybody knows their place and what they need to do, right? We must make sure that Jophiel reveals her true motive for entering the pageant. Only then can the plan come full circle._ "

The prototype diva smirked as her minions said "Yes sir!" all in unison. And then, she stopped and turned around to see she was right back at the backyard of the building, with the back door unlocked.

" _Alright then, Jophiel, let's see how long can your mask last before your true colors are revealed to the world._ "

* * *

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"Greetings everybody, Lindsey here."

At the backstage, Lola spoke with Clyde as the boy brushed her hair, with Penelope interjecting just to annoy the diva.

"So, the pageant has begun, and Lola won't back down."

Penelope was shown confronting Ronnie Anne, which quickly changed to show Lisa's laboratory, where Darcy came out of the elevator and was greeted by the prodigy.

"Well, only thing left to do is do my job as a judge."

Back at the pageant, the news crew from before spoke with the reporter, Catherine, who snapped at them before the scene changed to Lincoln talking with the Biker trio.

"I made sure to prepare for this... specially since I have one question I want to ask..."

Winston and Lindsey snapped their fingers, and a pillar burst from the ground, with the prize crown resting on top of it.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Two scenes were shown: Lisa and Darcy fleeing from something, and then Lola standing in the middle of the contestants, looking rather worried, while Lindsey spoke with the news reporter.

"Lola's True Colors are Revealed! The One Intruder That Can't Be Dealt With?!"

Lindsey, now back at the judge seat, asked a question to Lola, and the scene changed to show the diva crying, before changing again to show Lana looking at the beauty pageant building in the distance.

"Don't miss it."

Back at Lisa's laboratory, something burst from the ceiling and landed down, with the girls watching as the figure revealed itself to be none other... than Proto-Lana.


	13. True Colors

**Okay, so, while I don't think it's a good idea to start with something... sorta sad, I have some good and some bad news:**

 **The bad news is that I'll be moving to Peru with my Mother and sister, since the situation in my place is getting too hectic for our comfort, and my grandparents, who provided for us a lot, are moving to North America sometime later. We'll be going out at 15th of April, and once we arrive, it might be a whole month before we get our own wifi at our apartment/new house. So, I might be away for a while, that's what I'm trying to say.**

 **The good news is, the Proto-Lola arc should be JUST long enough to complete the arc before I leave, and I do have some other one-shots planned, so I'll make sure to give you guys some content before I move. Now, to the reviews:**

 **1) Finnjr63: And hopefully, things only get more interesting from here.**

 **2) GennaiArakida-XIV:**

 *** Not as complicated as the Louds' family tree, good lord.**

 *** They got into bad stuff, that's what.**

 *** Yay!**

 *** Sadly, that's the easiest way to describe him: He's just there XD.**

 *** If only that's what she was training for...**

 *** She'd probably intimidate you into doing nothing, though. She can be quite scary if angered.**

 *** And that's if you're lucky.**

 *** Yup.**

 *** Maggie MAY show up soon, depending on what you mean.**

 **3) Nobody245:**

 *** Leia is NOT an eidoloud, she's a lovechild, which create and control eidolouds, as long as they're based on that specific lovechild. I guess I should've been more specific with my wording?**

 *** He will appear, but a little bit later down the line.**

 *** You forgot Lincolnism, but yeah, that's the basic gist of it.**

 **4) Observant Guest:**

 *** Yeah, better not bring that matter up XD**

 *** Not all conflicts are black and white, that's for sure.**

 *** Time may reveal that later, yes.**

 *** By Becky, did you mean to say Hugh? Because I don't remember implying Becky was related to them in any way. And being honest, I forgot about the revelation of Sam's brother. I might include it later, but who knows.**

 *** Mick's birthmark's a moon on the back of his neck, and Bobbie's birthmark's a paw on her navel. Rip, Hunter, and Pucker, I don't know if those will play a role later, but let's sa** **y Rip hasa fist on the back of his hand, Hunter has a skull on the back of his head, and Pucker has a diamond close to his lips.**

 **5) animehero1000:**

 *** Uh huh, poor Tabb** **y.**

 *** They're working with what the** **y got.**

 *** Indeed she is. And trust me, she has more surprised up her sleeve.**

 **6) ChernoMan:**

 *** Indeed I kept her personality the same.**

 *** Accidental references ftw!**

 *** Hi-ho, hi-ho, into high gear we go!**

 *** Thanks. :)**

 **7) Hatoralo:**

 *** Are you surprised by either of those statements?**

 *** Even if she did, would the measures even work? After all, Proto-Lucy's no mere demon.**

 *** Ha! A progenitor? Using logic?! Now that's hilarious!**

 *** Are you seriously asking an eons-old, insane, unfathomably power, interdimensional fallen god... to act like a generic "devil" archetype? She might be a demon, but she's no devil: Proto-Lori and Proto-Leni are what you're looking for.**

 *** Simple: They think things in the new reality work in the same manner as in the original reality.**

 *** And you should be a bit more patient.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 13: Lola's True Colors are Revealed! The One Intruder That Can't Be Dealt With?!**

* * *

 _Back at the pageant's backstage..._

Lola sat on a chair as Clyde brushed her hair, and Penelope checked her clipboard, all while they were surrounded by the other beauty pageant contestants, and Ronnie Anne was at the corner. Just about half a dozen were there, so you wouldn't expect the diva queen of beauty pageants to feel worried. And yet, there was... something, about the beauty pageant that brought a chill down Lola's spine.

"Okay, about seven or so contestants, that looks like the most we are gonna get," Penelope remarked before she turned around, and looked at Lola with a smug look. "Can't imagine why nobody would want to enter a beauty pageant with Lola Loud in it."

Lola groaned, prompting Clyde to state, "Just ignore her, Lola, she's trying to get a rise out of you, so you lose the pageant before it even begins. Or just annoy you in general, that's how she rolls."

"First she hurt me, and then she insults me?" Lola rolled her eyes and growled, "Next thing she'll do is try to get me to owe her for-"

Clyde immediately covered the diva's mouth. "Lola, she's close enough to hear you; Don't give her any ideas."

Luckily, the redhead seemed to be more content to focus on another potential victim of her mocking, rather than the infamous diva. However, that other victim just so happened to be Ronnie Anne, who threw an angry glare at her once she recognized the buck-toothed girl.

"I know I'm not supposed to be here, okay?!" Ronnie snapped as she stood up and turned to face the smug Penelope. "But believe me, if you were _this_ close to having some musical psychopath about to strike you with an energy axe, you'd want to stay as far away from that jerk as well!"

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen," Penelope scoffed, causing Ronnie Anne to flinch. "You used to be one of the most respected, and feared, of girls in all of Royal Woods back before you moved away. Now look at yourself; cowering in a corner, terrified of being found by an aggressor, just like the many bullying victims across the world."

Then, Penelope slammed her hand against the wall and stared directly at the unnerved, before hissing, "How does it feel to be the hunted, rather than the hunter?"

Ronnie Anne simply slapped Penelope hard enough to make her back away a little. "Don't think you can get away with threatening me! I'm the toughest 5th grade girl in Royal Woods for a reason!"

"Being the toughest also means you can take a beating," Penelope pointed out as she slowly turned to look back at Ronnie, her glasses shining in a way that covered her eyes. "And if my suspicions are correct, you got that title for a very, _very_ good reason. And you better hope that title hasn't become a novelty by now."

Penelope snapped her fingers, and a pink portal opened behind Ronnie Anne, who barely got a glance at it before Penelope pushed her right into it, closing it with another snap of her fingers before stating:

"Because you're gonna need it where you're going."

As for Ronnie Anne? She landed on the floor, which somehow felt much harder than usual. Once she gathered enough strength to slightly get up, however, she saw she had landed on a floor made of crystal so shiny, the tomboy could see her own reflection in there.

And then a familiar, pink masked being stood above her...

 _Under the Loud house, in Lisa's Laboratory..._

The elevator went down and opened it's doors to reveal none other than Darcy inside, who walked out and looked around the mechanical laboratory as she heard footsteps approaching her. Footsteps that belonged to, of course, Lisa.

"Ah greetings, Darcy! It's so good that you came today!" the Prodigy greeted before grabbing Darcy's arm. "Now follow me and I'll unveil my giant robot in no time!"

Darcy, however, freed herself from Lisa's grasp, not that it was something particularly difficult to do, and clasped her hands as she asked, "Lisa, how long have you had this whole... place, underneath your house? Is it safe?"

"Of course it's safe, I would never conduct the experiments I do in a dangerous location," Lisa shrugged and shook her head. "As for how long I've had this laboratory, it was my only choice left after a particular incident convinced my parents to force me to do my experiments somewhere else. And though it took a while, I managed to build this place!"

Darcy threw a raised eyebrow at Lisa, who corrected herself, "Okay, I myself didn't make it, I hired some people to do it for me, but that's besides the point! Come with me to reveal to you my biggest project yet!"

The girl obliged, and followed Lisa until they were close to a giant thing covered by a white sheet. Then, by simply snapping her fingers, Lisa and Darcy watched as a pair of mechanical hands came out of the ceiling and took off the white sheet, revealing the covered thing to be none other than the Royal Woodroid 5000! Her greatest creation, and possible hope for all of Royal Woods!

And it looked like a bunch of metallic junk strung together to vaguely make a giant humanoid robot.

"Here it is, Darcy, the Royal Woodroid 5000, a giant mecha that can be piloted to fight back against any giant creatures that dare attack Royal Woods!" Lisa exclaimed as she walked back and forth, with Darcy just staring at the giant robot in shock. "Pretty cool, ain't it?!"

Darcy's stunned silence spoke for itself, but she still decided to ask:

"Lisa, how long have you been building this giant robot? It looks like it would've taken you a long time to build it."

"And oh boy, Darcy, you have no idea how long it took to make this beauty," Lisa sighed, walking and leaning against a wall before slowly sliding onto the floor. "It took me months to get it to its current state, and I was lucky to have finished it recently! Now all it needs is to be powered up, and fear not, I-"

Suddenly, the duo heard something hit a the ceiling, with part of said ceiling growing more and more deformed as the noises grew louder, prompting the duo to back away and go to each other for comfort. Eventually, that part of the ceiling burst, and whatever was hitting the base came out of it and landed on the ground, followed by a smoke cloud from the impact that soon dissipated.

And the figure turned out to be none other than Proto-Lana!

Lisa immediately got in front of Darcy and spread her arms wide. "W-Who the heck are you?!"

"I'm known by many names, just like the rest of my sisters, and even your family, Sathariel," Proto-Lana stated as she stretched for a moment. "But for simplicity's sake, just call me Progenitor Lana. Or Proto-Lana for short."

"And what do you want?" the prodigy inquired as she slowly headed for her back.

"I simply desire to keep you busy, regardless of whether you plan to get involved in the current events or not, while your sisters, and Lincoln, are dealing with my twin sister," Proto-Lana shook off the dirt all over the place and stood up. "Don't worry, though, I don't plan to hurt you-"

Not buying the statement, Lisa smirked and took out a control remote with a single button, which she pressed right away, causing several turrets to come out of the ground, ceiling, and walls, all aimed directly at Proto-Lana. And after about a second of charge up, the turrets unleashed several dozen bullets at the progenitor, while Lisa covered Darcy's ears and she covered her eyes.

After 5 or so seconds of a bullet shower, the turrets finally ran out of ammo and retracted back into the spots they came from. However, once the girls opened their eyes to see the aftermath, what they saw dropped their jaws to the floor:

Proto-Lana was completely unscathed, with several bullets laying on the ground, smoke coming out of them.

"Typical Lisa caste, depending too much on technology to solve your problems," Proto-Lana scoffed as she dusted herself. "Didn't they teach you that mortal weaponry cannot hurt someone who's beyond mortality?"

The girls couldn't answer, so they just exchanged worried looks before Proto-Lana added:

"Also, remember when I said I wasn't planning to hurt you?"

The girls nodded, and as if on cue, Proto-Lana's fingernails turned into claws.

"I changed my mind."

 _Back inside the beauty pageant..._

The camera crew from earlier now hid themselves in some corner in the auditorium, in a spot where they'd be able to see things in the shadows, and somehow a place where they wouldn't spotted. Either that, or they could be spotted, but people just didn't bother looking at them.

"Should we really stay here?" a cameraman asked, earning a look from Catherine. "I can't help but get the feeling something bad's going to happen-"

"And that's precisely why we need to stay here!" Catherine snapped at the crew, stomping the ground as she held a fist in front of them. "If something happens, we must televise it, no matter the cost! That's what the job description entailed!"

Then she turned to face at the judges' stand, putting a particular focus on Lindsey. "And besides, my niece is here, despite the fact that she's supposed to rest until her face is healed. I need to figure out why she's acting as a judge, and the only way to do it is to wait until I get the chance to meet with her in private and talk about it."

The cameramen just exchanged confused, or even worried, looks with each other. And then, the curtains parted, revealing all the contestants standing still and sporting confident smiles, Lola included. And of course, as the pageant itself began, the Loud sisters and Lincoln cheered up for their sister, and in the Biker Trio's case, they repeated Lincoln's cheering afterwards.

"Girls, you didn't have to repeat my cheering," the boy told the trio, brushing the hair of their leader, Ronnie, as he added, "In fact, you don't have to sit with me if you want to. I know you told me how you wanted to protect me after preventing Sam from coming after me and Ronnie Anne, but let's be honest, and no offense, but are you sure Sam would back away when faced with the three of you?"

"Well, we could try to pile ourselves together to look bigger and more intimidating!" Mindy suggested, cracking her knuckles before adding, "And if that doesn't work, we'll just kick her shin 'till she gives up!"

"Besides, we can't just stay at the sidelines and let somebody hurt you!" Cindy added before giving Lincoln a big, tight hug. "What kind of followers would we be if we did nothing to help you?"

"And besides, you probably have nothing to fear about her," Ronnie remarked before turning around and getting up to see Sam from the back seats. "She seems to be like someone who likes to make themselves look big and threatening, but once you get past that persona, they're quick to tuck their tails and run away."

And as all of that happened, Winston spoke:

"Alright, now that we've started, let's recap what these beautiful girls will have to do in order to win..."

Winston and Lindsey snapped their fingers, and from the middle of the stage burst forth a pillar, with the prize crown sitting on top of it on a pink pillow. The pillar stood long enough for the crown to shine enough that it caught the participants' attention, and mildly irritated everybody else, while the judging duo stated:

"The Gremorian Crown of Beauty!"

That statement caught everybody's attention, but Lola in particular was both confused and... concerned, as she thought to herself, " _Gremorian Crown of Beauty?_ "

The judges then clapped twice, and the pillar left in an instant, allowing Winston to continue, "Now, the events that we're gonna have, in order: A swimsuit round, a talent round, and finally, a short round where we'll give the contestants some questions, and they need to answer them as honestly as possible."

"Points will be awarded depending on the appropriate and non-pretentious nature of the swimsuit, the expertise and non-lethality of the talent displayed, and as Winston said before, the honesty of contestant as she answers the question," Lindsey further explained, before slamming her fists down the table and growling, "If the contestant refuses to answer the question provided after a couple seconds, we'll go to the next contestant-provided there is one-and remove one point for the one who didn't answer."

Everybody flinched at Lindsey's rather stern statement, but the one who flinched the hardest was Lola, who couldn't believe what she was seeing: Despite only being a judge, Lindsey Sweetwater still showed the same fiery attitude that she had when acting as a contestant. This could prove to be troublesome.

"Well, one way or another, let's hope we get to see some impressive showcases from our pretty ladies right here," Winston remarked before gently hitting Lindsey's shoulder. "What do you think about that, Lindsey?"

Lindsey matter-of-factly answered, "Uh, I don't swing that way man."

"Haha, you're a riot sometimes, Lindsey, seriously," Winston wiped a tear off and clasped his hands. "Anyway, I see that we have a returning diva champion among our contestants. I believe her name was... Lola Loud, right?"

Lola suddenly squealed, getting everybody's attention, but specially Lindsey's, who spoke:

"Yes, the infamous Lola Loud. A spoiled little brat who has crushed dozens of people, myself included, in her quest to become the ultimate pageant queen or something like that. The most I can say about her is that she's determined to win no matter the cost. Let's just see if she'll be able to keep up this winning streak, or if this'll be the first time she's _officially_ lost."

Lola bit her lips and groaned. Whatever Lindsey had planned, it was probably something that would embarrass her, one way or another. However, this glare didn't stop the judging pair to shout:

"Let the pageant, begin!"

 _Back at the laboratory..._

Lisa and Darcy ran away as Proto-Lana leaped from wall to wall, swinging her claws whenever she got the chance. The girls hid behind every pillar and wall that they could, but though this temporarily helped them, all Proto-Lana had to do was cling to the ceiling and watch until she found the duo and attack, forcing them to run away again.

Though the duo had an easy time dodging the attacks, it was rather clear that unless they did something, Proto-Lana would eventually catch up to them, and probably turn them into the first living shis-kebab. But as long as the girls didn't run into any corners, they'd probably be-

Oh hey, is that a corner?

"Oh no, we're cornered!" Lisa exclaimed as Darcy hid behind her.

And of course, Proto-Lana loudly made her appearence known, causing the duo to turn around and face her. And though Lisa was quite clearly afraid, Darcy seemed more along the lines of... concerned and conflicted.

"So, what are you going to do now, child of the Lisa caste?" Proto-Lana asked, showing her claws before slowly approaching the pair. "Are you going to stand there and allow me to kill you and Lisa's traitorous offspring, or are you going to stand up and protect her, even at the risk of revealing your true nature to her?"

"D-Darcy, what's she talking about?!" Lisa asked in a panic.

The girl looked away and stuttered as she scratched the back of her head, "I-I don't really know either, L-Lisa."

Proto-Lana's teeth turned into fangs and she hissed, "Perhaps a little strike will refresh your memory!"

The prototype plumber leaped forward, roaring like a distorted lion as Lisa screamed and Darcy frowned, her eyes glowing green as she raised her arm. This somehow caused a turret to come out of the ceiling, but this turret didn't look like the ones Lisa summoned before; It looked like it was entirely made of green energy, almost as if it was a construct of sort.

Proto-Lana looked at the energy turret with confusion, and this gave Darcy the perfect chance to unleash some lead on the prototype, only these bullets were made of energy as well. Not only that, but they seemed to actually damage Proto-Lana, or at least discomfort her enough to send her flying back into a wall. The prototype slid to the ground and slowly got up, only for more energy bullets to be shot at her, and though it angered her at first, the speed at which the bullets came convinced the progenitor to retreat.

Running on all four, Proto-Lana went straight back to the same spot she first landed on, with Darcy and Lisa following her as fast as they could while Darcy's controlled turret shot energy bullets at the progenitor. And once they managed to "corner" her, Proto-Lana stopped and caught her breath as she turned around to look at Darcy's green, mechanical eyes, and Lisa, who was basically just there at this point.

"Your "best friend" has been saved, child, but I'm pretty sure you're gonna have a lot to explain to her now," Proto-Lana smirked. "Still, don't feel bummed out: You get to live another day in the brutal jungle that is Lincoln's domain."

Darcy narrowed her eyes and snapped her fingers, causing the turret to fire one last energy bullet just before the prototype beastmaster leaped right back into the hole. With her gone, Darcy's eyes turned back to normal and the energy turret vanished from existence. However, while things were safe, there was one particular thing that brought worry to Darcy:

Lisa was standing on the spot, looking utterly dumbfounded.

"What. The heck. Was that all about?" the prodigy asked, slowly tilting herself forward before falling face-first on the floor.

Darcy helped Lisa get up as she sheepishly answered, "W-Well, It's a bit of a long story. Are you sure you got the time to listen to it?"

Once up, Lisa nodded with a stern look, and Darcy sighed, "Okay, so here's the thing..."

 _Back at the beauty pageant..._

The talent and the swimsuit round had already gone by, and Lola stood in the middle of the contestants, looking slightly worried. And though she tried to keep her worry as subtle as possible, everybody could blatantly see through her disguise, but specially Lindsey, who was talking with Catherine in some corner. And from the looks of it, she was growing quite impatient with it.

"Okay, now that we've finished with the on-camera questions, I want to talk with you off-camera," the news reporter stated before leaning her microphone closer to the redhead. "Lindsey, you know what the doctor told you about your face injuries: You need to rest as much as possible, and remain calm while doing so. Going to a beauty pageant as a judge, and one where your eternal rival is there as well, is not going to help you heal any faster."

"And do you think bothering me in the middle of said beauty pageant is going to help!?" Lindsey snapped, stomping the ground. "Listen up, Aunt Catherine, just like mom, you've barely been a part of my life, and the only times you ever get involved is to try and persuade me to not do something! Not to comfort me, or cheer me up, all you ever do is try to make me think twice about doing a particular thing, like proving to everybody once and for all what kind of person Lola truly is!"

"First of all, I'm only doing what I'm doing for your sake!" Catherine snapped. "And second of all... what are you talking about?"

Lindsey narrowed her eyes. "Well, first of all, if you want me to actually consider listening to you, then you're going to have to help me with something first. Are you willing to at least do that?"

The reporter exchanged looks with her crew, then turned back to Lindsey, who kept her stern glare. And as the staring fight between the Sweetwaters continued, the audience and the contestants looked from their seats.

"You know, It's kinda weird to see news people bothering somebody other than us," Sam quipped, only to put an arm behind her head, and another around Luna's shoulder, before adding, "I'm not going to complain, though, they can be a real pain in the butt sometimes."

"Still, she and the judge have been talking for a long time now," Luna remarked, raising an eyebrow. "Do you think she may be stalling for time or something like that?"

"Well, you know how beauty pageants are: Whether you're a judge or a contestant, they _love to be on the spotlight_!" Luan quipped, chuckling as she added, "Get it?"

Luan got "are you serious?" looks from everybody, making her look away and sheepishly smile as she twiddled her fingers. And then Lynn spoke, "That being said, they should've stopped talking a long time ago. I'll go see if I-"

Just as Lynn got up, however, Polly used her super speed to go from her seat to in front of Lynn in an instant. She raised her arms up and shook her head as she sternly stated, "Sit down, now!"

"Polly, I'm just going to try to get those two to stop yapping and get back to the pageant," Lynn sternly explained. "Now step aside and let me-"

"Every time you try to discuss anything with anybody, you end up resorting to violence!" Polly retorted, preventing Lynn from moving out. "If you do that same thing here, you're just going to cause unnecessary trouble! Just wait until they deal with it on their own, okay?"

"And what makes you think that won't take a while?!" Lynn snapped.

Tabby whistled, getting the duo's attention, upon which she pointed at the reporter woman and the bandaged judge, who were now heading back to the judges' stand. Polly shot a smug smile at Lynn afterwards, and the defeated jock rolled her eyes and went back to her seat, followed by Polly doing the same, and fist bumping with Tabby to further put salt in the wound.

"Okay, are you two finished?" Winston asked, earning a nod from Lindsey and Catherine. "Good, now we can begin the final round, which is the one where we'll ask some questions to the contestants so we can test their honesty."

And then the boy noticed the news woman's crew coming towards her. "Um, Lindsey, may I ask what's that reporter lady doing here?"

"Well, if we're going to do this round, we need to begin with the Lola, and what better way to give her question than televise it?" Lindsey argued with a shrug. "I have a very important question to ask, one that she must answer as truthfully as possible if she doesn't want to lose one point."

The bandaged judge turned to the girl and smirked behind her bandages. "Although, knowing how desperate she can be, she probably will answer anyway, just for a tiny chance to win another time."

Lola gritted her teeth and growled, and one silent glare of disapproval later, Winston sighed and looked away, not wanting to get involved with the deal. With that said, Catherine snapped her fingers, and the camera man started filming Lola as Lindsey recapped:

"Ever since I left the beauty pageant world, and even before that, you joined every beauty pageant you could, and did your absolute best to try and win it. You cheated, you played dirty tricks, you sabotaged, you blackmailed, you manipulated, you did practically anything to make your victory secure. There was literally nothing you wouldn't do to let victory reach your hands."

Though she only got a hunch, Lori immediately took off her phone and called Bobby, and spoke with him about something as the rest of the sisters watched in worry, but specially Leni, who frowned and covered her mouth as she looked away. As for Lincoln, the boy leaned a bit closer and narrowed his eyes, getting a gut feeling about what was coming next as Lindsey finished:

"And I'm saying all of this because there's only thing I want to ask: Why... do you try so hard?"

Lola's eyes widdened and she took a step back, before looking around to see all eyes on her, waiting for her answer. However, naturally, the girl tried to stall for time:

"C-Could you elaborate?"

Lindsey sighed, and obliged:

"You join beauty pageants, an occassion where girls are judged by their beauty, their talents, and so on and so forth. It's a competition where the girls are judged, and are forced to take... unfavorable treatments, assuming they're desperate enough, all just to win a stupid little prize that means nothing in the end."

Lindsey leaned back in her chair and folded her arms, and spoke as Winston noticed and held her chair so it wouldn't fall over.

"No matter the prize, no matter the pride, and no matter how good you feel, whatever prize you get eventually loses meaning: If it's money, you either burn it in a day or spend it on treatments to allow to keep competing. If it's a toy, you'll grow bored of it and throw it away for the next big thing. You just can't win when it comes to beauty pageants, there needs to be more to it than that."

The bandaged judge turned back to Lola and sternly finished, "So, why does it matter to you? Why do you try to win a prize that will lose all meaning to you in the end? Why, do you even try?"

Lola took a deep breath, and remained silent in deep thought... for about a couple seconds, before stating, without a hint of dishonesty on her tone:

"Because... it's what makes me... me..."

Lincoln frowned and the Biker trio comforted him as Lindsey said, "Lola, please take the question seriously."

"I am taking it seriously!" Lola snapped. "You probably don't understand, seeing how you're part of the Sweetwater family line, the best beauty pageant participants in all of Royal Woods or some nonsense like that! But I come from the Loud family! I have ten other siblings that people can compare me with, and if I did nothing to stand out..."

Lola sniffed and started to cry as she somberly said, "Then, I would just be another person stuck in the background... someone nobody would know... or even care about..."

At that statement, Lori closed her phone and put it on her pocket as she and Leni exchanged looks. And they weren't the only ones saddened by Lola's words, for Lincoln covered his mouth and Lynn, Luna, and Luan looked at the ground with forlorn looks. And not helping matters was what Lola said next:

"I got nine other sisters that stand out rather clearly: One is a fashion designer, the other is a comedian, another one's a musician, the other can keep order even in the most dire of situations, another one's an athletic genius, there's another one that's a poet in-training..."

Lola paused and looked at her siblings from the background, who were all looking at her with worried, yet encouraging looks. All but one of them: Lana, who was nowhere to be seen.

"And then... there's my twin sister, Lana."

As Lola spoke, attention was changed to look at Lana, who was walking away from the building, hands on her pockets and a sternly disgusted look on her face. But then, she stopped, and turned back to look at the building as her hair blew in the wind. Yet for some reason, her cap remained in place.

"She's older than me by two minutes, and yet I always acted like I was the older one. She too stands out from everybody else: She can tinker with machines, she can tame wild animals, she's practically a mix between a plumber, a mechanic, a veterinarian, and a zoologist all in one package. She's much more than I could ever hope to be."

As if to step up it's game, the wind blew even harder, successfully blowing off her cap and causing the tomboy to chase after it. She chased it for a while, until a familiar face caught it and retrieved it: Skippy, her crush.

"She's an inspiration for me in a way. She can do so many things, and yet, I'm stuck being her twin. And you know the usual issues that comes with twins."

Skippy said something as he handed the hat to Lana, something that turned her smile into a frown right away.

"People could always mistake us for the other."

One audible slap later, Lana continued walking away, cap on her head and a knocked out Skippy on the floor, with a notable handprint on his cheek.

"But she's not the only sister I find inspirational."

Attention changed to Lisa, who sat on the one of a table while listening to Darcy, sitting on the other end, explain her story and what just happened. From the looks of it, she was having trouble understanding it.

"There's also my younger sister, Lisa, who's practically a prodigy in and of herself. She can create inventions that would take a mature scientist days to make, in a couple of minutes. She can conduct dangerous experiments with relative ease, and she's done so many other things that would make other geniuses jealous."

Eventually, Lisa grew so numb to the explanation she face-planted on the table, returning her back to reality. And it all went back to Lola, who was shedding a couple tears as the little faint smile she had slowly turned into an angry frown. She grabbed her hair, and hissed:

"I had to do something to stand out. I had to do something to prove that I wasn't just part of the background. That I could also be impressive! Be imposing! Be someone that people shouldn't mess with!"

Lola pulled her hair and gritted her teeth.

"And beauty pageants was the only thing I could do! The only way I could stand out from the rest!"

Lindsey slammed her fists on the table. "Lola, we're on a schedule, and you're doing nothing but wasting our time! Either you answer the question now, or I'll eliminate you right here on the spot!"

"Lindsey, you can't do that-" Winston corrected the redhead.

"Fine!"

Both judges flinched and looked firmly at Lola, who had suddenly gone from sad to utterly furious. And apparently, she was so furious, she had a dark pink area surrounding her, with diamond-like glitters all around it, a sight that not only struck fear in almost everybody, but also seemed to catch Lincoln's interest.

" _Why... does that aura feel familiar?_ " the guy pondered, narrowing his eyes. " _Have I seen it before?_ "

And then, a voice spoke in his head:

" _You'll see soon enough._ "

Lincoln winced and looked around, but his attention was stolen when Lola spoke once more:

"I take beauty pageants seriously... because thanks to _my family_..."

Lola's aura grew bigger, and more volatile.

"Thanks to Royal Woods _itself_..."

The aura grew bigger once more.

"And specially, thanks to _you_..."

Lola and Lindsey interlocked glares, with Lindsey remaining sternly calm as Lola's pupils briefly turned into diamonds, and glowed pink. The diva then formed a pair of fists, and yelled at the top of her lungs:

"Without them, _I'm **nothing!**_ "

The aura exploded into a full-on pillar, and almost everybody shielded themselves from the ensuing aura explosion. The only exceptions were the contestants, who smirked before being sent flying into the walls, dissipating into dust upon contact. And shortly after the explosion itself vanished, Lola fell on her knees, catching her breath and trying to stay conscious.

Suddenly, the walls, ceiling, and ground were covered in crystal in a matter of seconds, with almost the whole audience panicking and trying to escape the transforming building right away. They did this by going through the only uncrystallized part of the place, the door, and though most people managed to leave, audience and contestants alike, the instant the Louds tried to escape, the door slammed itself shut before they managed to get out.

Not only that, but when Lynn tried to kick the door open by hitting it in the center, all she really managed to do was hurt her foot, with the door suffering no damage in the slightest. And of course, her family-and Polly Pain-went to her side as soon as she hit the floor.

"Are you okay, Lynn?" Polly asked as she and Lincoln helped the athlete get up.

Lynn cringed and looked at her foot, prompting Lincoln to ask, "What's wrong?"

"I think I might have fractured something," Lynn took a deep breath. "And the stupid door didn't even break open!"

"Of course it didn't break open, you little dumbass," Sam stated, rolling her eyes as she walked towards the door. "Everybody knows that the best way to kick a door open is by kicking it in the door crotch!"

Sam proceeded to kick the door, and shockingly enough, it didn't work either. In fact, all Sam managed to do was hurt her foot.

"Mental note: Door crotches are harder than human crotches," Luan quipped, giggling as Sam hit the ground right next to Lynn.

The athlete mockingly asked, "Who's the little dumbass now?"

"It's still you, Napoleon," Sam hissed.

Suddenly, Luna got an idea and went towards the door, saying, "Okay, you guys try and give yourself some rest and let me worry about it."

Luna summoned her pink-lavender-blue energy guitar and swung it straight into the door... only for the energy guitar to _snap in half_ and vanish from existence as everybody, Luna in particular, stood frozen in shock and disbelief.

"Okay, if that doesn't confirm we're practically trapped here, I don't know what will," Tabby remarked, putting her hands on her hips. "And also, you're gonna have a lot of things to explain later, Luna."

"If you come out alive, that is."

Everybody turned around, and hovering close to Lola was a bunch of dust that combined itself to form a girl that looked very much like her, only with a lighter shade of blonde hair, tide in two ponytails. Not only that, but she wore a black and pink uniform-armor of sorts, with a pink diamond symbol on her chest connected to chains. And the Loud siblings immediately ran over to Lola's side

"W-Who are you?" Lola asked, only to wince in turn. "Did you do this?!"

"This place's crystallization is entirely your fault!" the Lola lookalike growled, sporting a "friendly" smirk as she talked. "If you hadn't let your own emotions run rampant and crazy, nobody would be trapped in this place!"

Lola narrowed her eyes and growled, prompting the lookalike to add, "As for who I am... you may call me, Leia."

The lookalike's eyes glew pink as she finished:

"Leia Loud."

* * *

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"Hi everybody, Lincoln here!"

Luna asked something to the newly revealed Leia, who folded her arms and flew to the ground. Lori then explained something, and Leia spoke next, looking rather upset.

"So, it seems in at least another world, Lola and I have a daughter named Leia?"

Lincoln and Lola silently pointed at each other, and Leia smugly nodded, before the scene changed to show Leia talking with an annoyed Proto-Lola.

"And she's working for Proto-Lola! As if Lola's little snap wasn't bad enough..."

Meanwhile, with Ronnie Anne and Clyde, the duo met up, and then came face-to-face with the Pink Champion, as well as Penelope. Then, just as the Pink champion tried to attack Ronnie with her booty, pause, Polly Pain interjected with her own booty bash.

"Ronnie Anne and Clyde are nowhere to be seen either... this feels like it'll fall apart anytime soon..."

Suddenly, Ronnie Anne and Penelope threw Clyde and Leia at each other respectively, with the duo clashing and Leia catching a glimpse of something that shocked her.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

The Loud family walked around a pink diamond-filled hallway, before it turned back to show Ronnie Anne, Tabby, Clyde, and Polly Pain relaxing after striking the pink champion, and then Ronnie Anne gasped at the mask of the champion falling off.

"The Servants of Gremory Strike! Is This Lola's Greatest Mistake?! "

The entrance to the space the Louds found themselves in closed off, and Proto-Lola's image appeared on the walls, before the other sisters-and Lincoln-were encased in crystal.

"Don't miss it!"

Finally, in what seemed like a flashback, Lola spoke with Carol, and back in the present, the whole place seemingly fell apart as Proto-Lola burst from the walls, ready to strike Lola.


	14. Gremory's Servants

**Okay, we go deeper into the plot, and head closer and closer towards the climax that'll surely, probably, maybe blow your minds. And not just because of it's length.**

 **You may have expected an April Fools Day joke, but it was me, EXOTOS!**

 **Also, speaking seriously right now, there's something I'd like to bring attention to: Recently, I've been starting to get back in the groove of Star vs the Forces of Evil fanfiction. I made some fanfiction back when the show was in, like, Season 1 and maybe a bit of Season 2, but I abandoned the idea and focused on Loud House since then. Now, I'm back to it, and the reason I'm pointing this out isn't just because I wanted to let you guys know about this.**

 **A couple days ago, I posted the first chapter of a potential full story AU I called "Wands of Destiny," which works as something like an SVTFOE counterpart to "Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn," this fic. At the very least, it greatly diverges from canon, but the characters are more or less the same.**

 **I bring it up because, I wanted to ask some of you guys (Mostly the guests, like Nobody245 and Observant Guest) to give that fanfic a look, and tell me what you think. I know, I'm probably asking way too much out of you, specially since the fanfic's existence could spoil a bit of Season 2 and 3, not in a way that affects canon, but that reveals some spoilers, but if you already know those spoilers and have a bit of information about the show, I request that you give it a look, and review it, since there's basically no other way for me to know if you read it XD**

 **Anyhow, with that massive dump of information dealt with, let's go to the reviews:**

 **1) LoudAutomata16:**

 *** Gremory is Proto-Lola's demonic/fallen name. The term "Gremorian" implies that it belongs, or is otherwise connected to her.**

 *** Leia is based on one of the more commonly "accepted" lovechildren made in the fandom. They're quite a controversial topic, though, so I'd rather not discuss them so openly.**

 **2) Nobody245:**

 *** The Loud sisters are their daughters, yes. The lovechildren, consequently, would be considered their grandchildren/descendants, seeing how ancient they are. The reason they're there is to further expand their army and forces because, let's be real, in an entire universe where you're seen as a mistake, where the very person who made you (Proto-Lincoln) barely thinks you're worth his time, and where you're tortured, discriminated, and unfairly prejudiced for something beyond your control, why wouldn't you want to join the same people who want to change everything?**

 *** The girls were actually illusions created by a certain "elder sister" to provide Proto-Lola some help. And the theater belongs to Proto-Lola, and she has billions more of them, so I assume no.**

 *** In a sense, they're doing both: They technically work on their own agenda to please the lord and convince him to not destroy them like he did the protoypes, but they do so under Proto-Luna and a certain elder sister's rule, basically turning them into another batch of slaves for the proto-sisters.**

 **3) Omega Ultra: Yup, the sin children are here.**

 **4) Finnjr63: Thx. :)**

 **5) animehero1000:**

 *** Thanks buddy.**

 *** What we want to hear is sometimes not nearly as important as what we need to hear.**

 *** It's a complete clustermess, but yeah, that's an easy to way to see it. XD**

 **6) ChernoMan: Hey, you're the 100th reviewer!**

 *** Thanks.**

 *** Too late for that, man! Too late for that!**

 *** There are more twists coming, don't worry.**

 *** Nah, she's miles away from it.**

 *** I don't, so no kudos for me. :(**

 **7) Observant Guest:**

 *** I understand your confusion. Mick Swagger went to the Loud family school of "having so many children people wonder if some of them are half-siblings or adopted" XD**

 *** Thanks. :)**

 *** Fun fact: Catherine WAS going to be the mother of Lindsey, but A Hopeful Observer suggested that I change it to her aunt, and to be honest, I like this change better. And yeah, Penelope and Ronnie Anne won't be buddy-buddies anytime soon XD.**

 *** You'll find out soon enough, but yeah, we'll have to play the waiting game in the meantime.**

 *** Surely enough, Leia won't be the only sin child to appear, and I'll let you decide how intense this chapter really is.**

 **8) js: I'm conflicted: One the one hand, I'm really overjoyed on how you're enjoying the story so far, but on the other hand, I'm kinda worried over whether you read about "The Loud Sim Date" or if you just heard from it. If the former... oof, sorry buddy.**

 *** The proto-sisters don't exactly support Lincolnism. In fact, the only Proto-Sister that really gets involved in it at all is Proto-Luna, and even she has an agenda of her own. All the other sisters leave the religion alone as long as it doesn't interfere with their plans.**

 *** I asked A Hopeful Observer about this, and we decided to agree that, for this moment at the very least, the story will remain post-season 2 but pre-season 3. I know I may have said at some point (don't remember when) that the story takes place after the whole series, but every freaking thing that happens in the show doesn't have to appear for that to be true. And besides, this is an Alternate Universe basically, so things may have gone differently here.**

 *** Pretty much, yeah. And, just for my two cents, I like to think what she meant was that she was annoyed at how they were working for one of the few people that actually betrayed Lincoln, consequently betraying him in a sense.**

 *** Never heard of that Katy Perry song, how's it like?**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 14: The Servants of Gremory Strike! Is This Lola's Greatest Mistake?!**

* * *

 _Back where we left off..._

The rest of the audience walked around the crystallized building, trying to find a way to get out, while the Louds stood frozen in shock in front of the Lola lookalike, who had just revealed herself to be called Leia.

Leia Loud, to be exact.

"Wait, did you say your name's... Leia Loud?" Lincoln repeated, folding his arms and tilting his head.

"That would mean she's a part of our family, right?" Luna guessed, scratching her chin as she thought about it. "I don't remember having a family member named Leia, though. Do you think she's removed?"

"I'm not surprised you don't know who I am, after all, I'm not even from this reality," Leia remarked as she slowly flew to the ground, folding her arms as she added, "But even if I did exist here, you'd just want to try and erase every trace of my existence anyway. That's just the kind of life someone like me, a lovechild, has to deal with."

That statement, though directed at the Louds, caught the attention of Tabby and Sam, the latter more annoyed than anything. As for the Louds, Luna was the first to respond, "Lovechild?"

"That sounds _lovely_ ," Luan quipped, giggling before adding with a serious tone, "But seriously, though, what's a lovechild?"

Leni opened her mouth to try and answer, but just as everybody turned to look at her, Lori covered her mouth and shook her head. This prompted Leni to nod and somberly look at the ground as Lori explained instead:

"It's an euphemism for a child that was born from a couple who weren't married at the time of conception."

"And trust me, being a lovechild is a nightmare, it's almost as if life itself was punishing me for the "crime" of being born!" Leia remarked in a dramatic tone, pacing back and forth and clasping her hands. "Specially since Mom and Dad had nobody to support them after their parents figured out I existed."

"Now that you mention them, who are your parents?" Lucy inquired, causing Lori and Leni to flinch, and Leia to stop on her tracks and turn to look at the Louds with disgust. "You told us who and what you are, you might as well tell us what couple brought you to life."

Though she was clearly angry at the sudden request, Leia soon smirked, figuring it was better to not dodge the question. However, she remained silent as she turned to look at Lincoln and Lola, the former helping the latter stand up until they saw she was looking at her. The other Louds soon followed, slowly but surely getting an idea of why Leia was looking at them.

And eventually, Lincoln and Lola got an idea themselves, and pointed at themselves as they gave the lookalike worried looks.

She nodded, with a smug smirk.

"Nuh uh, no way, there's no way they're your parents!" Luna stated in disbelief. "I mean, sure, you look a bit like Lola, but she and Lincoln are brother and sister! That's just messed up, brah!"

"Maybe not this world's Lincoln and Lola, but the ones in my world were different... they shared a stronger connection than the rest of the Louds, and my existence proves just how strong said connection was... before they..." Leia shook her head and slapped herself. "Whatever, I have better things to do than mess around in this crystal cavern this world's Lola created. I'm needed elsewhere."

Lola raised her left arm, "W-Wait!"

Once her palm glew a slightly dark pink glow, Leia flinched and immediately stomped the ground, covering herself in pink crystal that soon dissipated, revealing the girl was nowhere to be seen. Not that it mattered, since the crystallized landscape gave the team something else to worry about.

Let's just literally forget what just happened," Lori remarked, getting everybody's attention. "For now, we got to focus on finding a way out of here and helping Lola and Lynn recover."

"Good idea, dude," Luna turned back to the seats. "Hey, Sam, could you-"

However, once she fully turned around, Luna and the rest noticed that Sam, Tabby, and Polly had already left, leaving Lynn behind to be tended by the biker trio, who were covering her injured foot in bandages. Then they were approached by Luna, followed by the rest of the Loud siblings.

"Excuse me, did you see my girlfriend, her sister, and her sister's friend go off somewhere?" Luna asked to the trio, earning confused looks from them. "I'm talking about a blonde teenager with a blue stripe on her hair and-"

"Oh yeah, we did see her, a girl with a purple stripe, and that girl's friend leave a while ago," Mindy remarked, rolling her eyes. "The blonde one said something about blaming someone named "Maggie" when she got back home."

"But where they could they've have gone!?" Luna exclaimed before pointing at the ceiling. "They notice the entire place has been covered in crystal that can't be broken? there's no way out!"

Cindy then blurted, "Except for that spot", while pointing at something.

The Loudsters turned to look at the pointed place, and saw a small opening hall where they could all fit inside, which seemingly lead deeper into the building. Upon seeing this, Lincoln-still carrying Lola-walked to the trio and brushed Cindy's hair, "Nice job finding that spot, Cindy."

The girl blushed put her hands on her cheeks, giggling as she went back to help Lynn.

"Alright, guess we know where we're, like, going next," Leni said as she and Lori headed to the passage first. "Come on everybody, please keep up with us."

"W-Wait for me!" Lynn shouted, trying to get up, only to fall down in pain soon afterwards.

This prompted Lincoln to turn to Lynn and say, "Lynn, I think you should stay here and rest until your foot's healed up."

"Pfft, why are you talking like you don't know me, Lincoln?! I can't just stay here and do nothing while the rest of you go and try to find a way out of this place!" Lynn snapped, slamming her fist down the crystal ground. "I can be useful, Lincoln! It's not fair that you take Lola, who's completely exhausted, but leave me behind, when I'm mostly fine except for my foot being a little banged up!"

"I'm going with them because it's what I have to do, Lynn," Lola remarked, taking a deep breath before looking at the ground, to see her reflection, which briefly morphed into that of Proto-Lola's before turning back to normal. "I got this whole place crystallized in the first place, and the other me is probably going to make things worse. It's my fault, so I need to fix it, or at least try to."

"And we could also look for the missing people while we're at it," Lincoln added. "I mean, the camera crew, the reporter lady, Winston, Lindsey, all those people just suddenly disappeared when you turned the whole place into a giant piece of jewelry."

Lola rolled her eyes. "Right, that too."

"Are you literally coming or not!?" Lori yelled from inside the passage.

The Loud sisters-except Lola-ran towards the passage as fast as they could, with Lincoln and Lola exchanging saddened looks with Lynn before they joined them. Now left alone with the biker trio, the jock bit her lips as the girls helped her get up, then guided her to one of the crystal seats.

"Okay, now just rest here until another potential exit opens up, and we'll guide you out of this place in no time," Ronnie remarked, patting Lynn's back. "Just be patient, okay?"

The jock muttered, "It's not fair."

The trio raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"It's not fair!" Lynn snapped, startling the girls. "My foot got hurt so badly I can barely stand on it, but the rest of my body's perfectly fine! This is a chance to redeem myself after getting my butt handed to me by the progenitors and now I have to stay here and heal up while the rest of my siblings, specially Lola who's basically exhausted at this point, are heading to deal with Lola's counterpart!"

The athlete leaned back and groaned in frustration, not that the trio could understand why since most of the words she had spit out made no sense to them whatsoever. However, Ronnie seemingly understood or got an idea of what Lynn meant, so she asked:

"Are you angry because you were left out, or are you angry because you're worried for your princess sister?"

Lynn went back up and looked at the trio, with Mindy and Cindy looked worried at her, while Ronnie had her arms folded, waiting for an answer.

 _Meanwhile, back with Lana..._

The tomboy plumber continued her walk back home, hands still on pocket, and face still looking firmly at the ground. However, she eventually lifted her head up when she heard a puppy bark, a bark that she found way too familiar.

Surely enough, the bark belonged to Watterson, a dog the Louds took home a long time ago... and right next to him, giggling as she watched, was his owner Claire, who Lana still had some sour memories about. And then Claire noticed her as well.

"Claire." Lana muttered.

"Lana." Claire hissed.

Watterson looked at Lana, then glanced back at his displeased owner, then curled up and hoped the bad vibes would go away soon. Claire walked closer to Lana, who narrowed her eyes in anger as the young girl came closer and closer.

"Fancy seeing you again, Claire," Lana remarked, not hiding her displeasure at all.

"I was taking Watterson out for a walk," Claire explained. "You know its good for dogs to get taken out for a walk every so often, otherwise they'll get bored."

Claire then leaned her tiny puppy closer to Lana. "You remember Watterson, don't you?"

Lana turned to see the puppy shivering in terror, so she put up a friendlier attitude and gently pet him, slowly calming him down until he wasn't shivering anymore. "Yeah, I do remember him. Nobody's been kissing his butt since you took him back, right?"

"I've been trying to find a way to let people know which side is his face and which side is his butt," Claire rolled her eyes, trying to hold back her laughter. "What about your sisters? Your _twin_ sister, in particular?"

Lola's implied mention made the tomboy flinch, and she simply looked away as she sternly answered, "Well, she's in another beauty pageant and hasn't shut up about it since then. She practiced for a couple days, and after we had a little argument at the pageant hall and I left."

"So, you turned your back on your twin sister at a time when she probably needed your help?" Caire recapped, petting her pet while giving Lana a disapproving look. "I know I probably shouldn't be one to talk, I lost my sweet Watterson one time after all, but what you did was just mean."

"Well, who are you to judge!? It's not like you have a twin sister, let alone a sibling!" Lana snapped, folding her arms and looking away as she hissed, "Besides, Lola made it clear the only thing I need to do is cheer for her and apparently stay out of her way. So I'm not going to get mixed up any more than that!"

"And not being at the pageant is cheering her on? Even if it isn't much, being there for her might give her the boost she needs for whatever the pageant has planned." Claire raised an eyebrow and looked at the sky. "Like being trapped inside a floating building that's covered in crystal to the point like it looks like a giant diamond."

Lana, quite justifiably, was baffled by the statement. "...Uh, okay. that was oddly specific."

Claire and Watterson pointed at the sky. "Don't look at me, I'm just saying what I can see from here."

Lana turned around, and much to her horror, Claire was pretty right: The building was floating high above in the sky, so high in fact that a fall from there could _kill_ a person, and it was covered in so much pink crystal, that the shape of the building was starting to take the form of a distorted diamond. Not only that, but small pieces of gem shards were dropping from beneath it, implying the structure was fairly unstable.

And of course, Lana bolted as fast as she could towards the building, leaving behind Claire to smile as a Lana-like shadowy figure appeared behind.

"I'm gonna need some help. Maybe I should call someone, but who?!" Lana took out her phone and checked her contacts. "Skippy? No, he's good with a wrench, but not really much else. Lisa? Well, that's an obvious no. Winston!? Ugh, Lola's been messing with my phone again!"

And then, she remembered a certain someone. "Of course, how could I forget about him!"

 _Inside the Crystal Building..._

Clyde walked around the crystallized landscape, searching for Penelope, and really just searching for another living being in this glamorous shiny prison. Just then, his phone rang, and he sat on a chair-like structure before answering the call.

"Hello?" the boy greeted.

"Clyde, it's me, Lana!" the tomboy answered from the other end.

Clyde smiled, and spoke with Lana as he took a look around the crystal building, "Oh hi Lana, what's up?"

"The beauty pageant hall is floating in the sky! And completely covered in crystal! What the heck happened there!?"

"What makes you think I know? I was just minding my business when some flashing light happened, and next thing I know, I'm somewhere covered entirely in crystal. I'm trying to look for a way out, or at least find find Lincoln and your sisters."

"Okay, do what you can. But Clyde, for the love of Mr. Universe or whatever he's called, if you see Lola, please call me and tell me how she's doing!"

"You got it."

The boy hung up and saved his phone in his pocket, just in time for a familiar figure to crash right in front of him.

"Ronnie Anne?!" Clyde exclaimed as he got up and dusted himself. "What are you... _why_ are you here?!"

"Oh, well your little friend Penelope pushed me into some magic portal," Ronnie Anne explained as she stretched. "And right after that happened, one of those masked weirdo's from that Lame-o's sisters told us about attacked me and has been kicking my butt."

"So, let me get this straight: You've been stuck in this place since the pageant started, with one of those masked people that beat up the Louds?" Clyde's eyes widened. "And you're still alive!?"

"Well, the masked weirdo hasn't done anything that would actually kill me, but yeah, that's the gist of it," Ronnie Anne shrugged. "Anyway, I don't care either way, but how's the pageant going?"

Clyde scratched his chin. "From what I understand, something happened that crystallized the whole place, leaving everybody inside stucked."

Ronnie Anne tilted her head. "So, not so good?"

Clyde sulked and sighed, "No."

"Well, what about Diva-O?" Ronnie asked next. "She was the one who was most excited about this whole pageant thing, right?"

"Let's just say, she's been demoralized."

The dark skinned geek and freckled tomboy turned around and saw Leia standing close nearby, arms folded behind her back and with a smug look on her face. And soon afterwards, she was joined by another familiar face; Penelope.

"Penelope?!" Clyde exclaimed as Ronnie clenched her fists.

"I'm glad you could join us in this mineral wonderland, Clyde, but I don't think you should stay here," Penelope folded her arms and snicked. "After all, you're just a nerd, what makes you think you get out of here alive?"

"I hate to agree with the person who put me here, but it might be better if you stay in the sidelines and watch the cat fight, Geek-O," Ronnie cracked her knuckles as Penelope slowly reached for Leia's neck. "And if you got some catnip in hand, throw it at her direction! It would help me beat her if she was dazzled!"

Clyde folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Do you honestly think she's a cat?"

Ronnie Anne chuckled. "No, but I do think she's a pu-"

"Hey, Santiago!" Penelope yelled, now basically strangling Leia as she spun around. "Catch!"

Penelope spun around some more, then threw Leia as hard as she could towards Ronnie, prompting the tomboy to grab Clyde and spin him as well as she yelled:

"Two can play that game!"

The freckled tomboy threw Clyde directly at Leia, successfully making them clash right at their heads. However, as they separated and hit the ground, Leia managed to catch a glimpse on Clyde's forehead. And in said forehead, there was a peculiar symbol.

It was a square, with the first segment being blue, the second being red, and the third segment being, of course, orange.

" _The symbol of the traitor caste!_ " Leia thought in disbelief, gritting her teeth before catching the floor with her hands. " _I need to inform Gremory right away!_ "

And just as quickly as Clyde hit the floor, Leia covered herself in crystal, and said crystal dissipated soon afterwards, revealing she was nowhere to be seen. Not that it mattered, since Penelope wasn't impressed and Ronnie Anne was too busy checking if Clyde was alright.

"Sorry, things came so sudden that I did the first thing that came to mind," Ronnie said as she helped Clyde get up. "But, you have to admit it: You make for a pretty good weapon."

This earned her a slap in the face from Clyde, and as the duo's ensuing argument began, Penelope watched them from the sidelines, arms folded and with a disapproving look directed at Ronnie Anne.

" _Just as I figured, Ronnie Anne still thinks like a barbarian, just as Chandler indicated, and Clyde still doesn't act until after the action's been taken,_ " Penelope closed her eyes and shook her head. " _If those two wish to survive long enough to help save the universe, then they better deal with those issues, or else they'll be the first to perish._ "

And then a familiar figure went to the redhead's side, returning her to reality: The pink masked champion.

"Oh hey, Pinky, I was starting to wonder if you got lost," Penelope pointed at the duo. "Listen up, those two seem to be having some relationship difficulties. Think you could include Clyde in Ronnie Anne's beatdown?"

The Pink Champion turned back to the redhead, only to see she was already partially covered in crystal, only to be fully covered moments after flashing a peace sign. The crystal then shattered into pieces, with the girl nowhere to be seen, leaving the Pink Champion alone to face off against Ronnie and Clyde, who were still too busy in their argument to notice she was looking firmly at them.

 _Meanwhile, with Proto-Lola..._

The prototype diva sat on a throne made of... well, take a guess, while she was surrounded by several crystal walls, which sported mirror-like structures that allowed her to see several sections of the building: The trio of the Loud parents and Carol still struggling against the eidoleias, the team of Sam, Tabby, and Polly walking around the passage, Ronnie and Clyde-well, mostly Ronnie-facing off against the Pink Champion, and the one that caught her attention the most, Lynn resting while the Biker Trio gave her company.

"Poor Camael, you're so pitiful, even though all of your misfortune is entirely your fault," Proto-Lola remarked in a tone that was a mocking imitation of pity. "She probably should've thought about it before making a fool of herself, though. Heck, I bet Lynn's watching from her own dimension, laughing as her "child" continues to embarrass her caste. What a shame."

Just then, a crystal sprouted from the ground, with Leia being inside of it. She then moved a bit, and the crystal shattered into a million pieces.

"Glamorous Gremory, I came with some urgent news!" Leia exclaimed, earning an annoyed look from Proto-Lola. "While looking around the landscape, and after being used as a projectile, I saw a boy who looked very similar to Lincoln's former messenger, and he had the symbol of the traitor caste on his forehead!"

Proto-Lola slightly lifted her eyelids, and scratched her chin as she turned back to the reflective wall. "I had a feeling we'd end up facing one of Lisa's descendants eventually, but I didn't think we'd meet one of those this early."

And then Leia exclaimed, "What should we do?!"

"You mean what should _you_ do, I'm too busy making sure everything goes according to plan to get involved," Proto-Lola folded her arms behind her back. "Do you have any idea where this child of treachery currently is?"

"He's probably still in the place where I last saw him," Leia scratched the back of her head. "Then again, the Pink Champion's also there-"

"Then go and help her!" the proto-diva exclaimed, lifting one of her arms and giving Leia the pointer finger. "As strong as she may be, giving our forces a helping hand once in a while isn't a bad idea Especially if one of the traitors is involved!"

"Y-Yes, ma'am!"

Leia flew off away just as Lindsey walked into the room through one of the many passages. One that was high above the ground, though, so once she came out, she fell face-first on the ground. Not that the prototype diva even bothered to notice this.

"Oh hello darling, I was starting to wonder when you were going to come," Proto-Lola greeted with a friendly tone. "I'm pretty sure that I made the way to my location quite clear to you. Did you get lost on your way here?"

"With all due respect, I don't think that's the sort of issue we should be focusing on right now," Lindsey got up and dusted herself. "I mean, where are Aunt Catherine and Winston?! When I woke up after Lola's exclamation, I was all alone in some sort of crystal garden, with neither of them to be seen!"

"I simply teleported you to another location, and the "Aunt Catherine" and "Winston" you're talking about were teleported outside of the building," Proto-Lola explained with a stern tone. "After all, you're the only one I can trust to not mess up my plans after they've been set in motion. They're more than likely fine, so don't fret over them."

Proto-Lola jumped from her pillar and landed right in front of Lindsey, their eyes meeting in an intense stare as the prototype asked, "And also, why is your face still covered in bandages? I'm fairly sure I asked you to take those off."

"Just because _you_ and those two girl followers of yours have seen my real face, doesn't mean everybody knows about it," Lindsey sternly answered, turning away from the prototype's gaze. "If I just showed my face like it was nothing, who knows what people would think of it? Specially Lola, since I don't think she'd be happy about it."

Proto-Lola smirked. "Should I assume you're too scared to reveal your real face, then?"

Lindsey flinched, and turned back to Proto-Lola, who continued to smile as she turned around and snapped her fingers, causing a mirror to pop out of the wall close to her. She and Lindsey approached it, and from the other end of the mirror they saw the Loudsters walking deeper into the passage, with Lori and Leni leading the way. Then the mirror zoomed in on Leni's face.

"That's one of the ladies from before..." the bandaged redhead remarked. "Where is the passage taking them?"

Proto-Lola lowered her eyelids. "You'll see."

 _Meanwhile, with the Swagger duo and Polly..._

The team came out of a hole, and unfortunately it was one right up in the air, so they soon fell down. However, as they fell, Sam got an idea and aimed her arms down, somehow creating a board-like illusion that was colored purple-lavender-blue, that was big enough to hold both her and Tabby. Polly was left out, however, and she crashed face-first on the ground.

Sam made the object slide down until they reached the floor safely, upon which Tabby ran after Polly and checked to see if she was okay.

"Sam, why in the bloody heck did you let Polly fall?!" Tabby snapped as her older sister walked to her side. "She could've gotten hurt, or worse!"

"You know the swagboard is only big enough for two people," Sam shrugged and shook her head. "It was either taking you or your friend with me, and you already know how important you are to me, my sweet little sis."

"You're still a gobshite to me," Tabby stated matter-of-factly right in Sam's face. "Are you hurt, Polly?"

"Probably, but it's nothing to worry about," Polly got up and dusted herself. "If there's one good thing that my training with Lynn and Margo has done, is that I don't feel as much pain as I used to."

"See? Even your friend sees it's not a big deal," Sam remarked with a shrug. "Now come on, let's look around to see if we're getting closer to the exit to this place."

As Tabby continued arguing with Sam, Polly could hear noises down one of the passages. As she focused on the sounds she realized it was Lincoln's friends and someone else.

" _I may not know them well, but they're Lincoln's friends, or at least the dark-skinned dude is. I can't just ignore it._ " Polly thought. She looked back at Tabby and Sam still in the heat of an verbal exchange." _They should be fine. Sorry, Tabby, I will explain later._ "

When Tabby turned back to hear Polly's opinion, the roller skater was nowhere to be seen. As for where she went, she rolled through the landscape, her speed slowly increasing as she approached Ronnie and Clyde's fight with Pink, with her doing her "booty bash" technique once she was close enough. However, the champion saw this coming and returned the booty bash, clashing against Polly's in order to try and overpower her, despite Polly trying as hard as she could.

Sadly, the clash eventually ended in the champion's favor, and her booty bash sent Polly flying straight to Clyde and Ronnie, dragging them with her as they flew off through some walls, eventually crash-landing on the ground again.

"Polly Pain!? What are you doing here!? Actually, are you okay?!" Clyde asked as he helped both Ronnie and Polly get up.

"Sounded like you guys needed some help, so I ran towards the noise. And I'm fine, you don't need to worry," Polly answered as she dusted herself. "Not yet, anyway."

Polly spotted Pink in the distance, and immediately smacked Ronnie and Clyde into a nearby pillar, before going there as well to hide moments before she arrived and started to search the place.

"That lady's booty's much stronger than I expected," Polly remarked, scratching her chin. "I mean, I had a feeling the booty I was going to face would be incredibly powerful, but I didn't think it'd be of this magnitude."

"I can't tell if I'm supposed to take your statement seriously or not," Clyde blurted. "I mean, of all the things that masked stranger could use to kill us, her butt's the one thing you're focusing on?!"

"You don't understand, Clyde," Ronnie Anne stated, clenching her fist. "The human body has several parts that can be used as weapons in certain situations, and the butt's one of those weapons, which can be used regardless of gender and such! Specially by somebody who knows how to use it well!"

The boy rubbed his forehead in frustration. But then, he got an idea, "If Polly's booty can't beat that lady's booty alone, maybe both her and your booty, Ronnie Anne, could do the trick!"

"Now you're speaking my language!" Polly stated with a confident smile. "What's the plan, buddy?"

Clyde smiled, and mere moments later, the trio were far away from their original spot, with the champion still looking at the landscape for them.

"Okay, so if I remember correctly, Lori said that those of Lynn's caste have the power of super speed," Clyde remarked, folding his arms as he turned to Polly. "Since you're Lynn's friend, I'm betting your part of her caste too? And sorry for the assumption."

"Can't really be mad over something that's accurate," Polly revealed her birthmark, which was located on her left shoulder. The segments were as followed: red, black, and red again. "And lucky for you, I've known about my super speed for a while, so I've been able to practice it."

Ronnie glanced at the birthmark, then turned back to Clyde with a worried look. "What's your plan, Nerd-O?"

"Okay, to recap: Polly will run around at high speeds until you two are fast enough to exponentially power up your "booty bashing" as I recall she called it once," the boy explained, Ronnie throwing a confused look on the "booty bashing" at Polly, who smiled and laughed in return. "Then, once you've powered up enough, you'll dash straight towards the masked stranger and booty bash her, probably knocking her out in the process!"

"Mind if I help?"

Everybody turned around and saw Tabby run to Ronnie and Polly, stopping at Polly's side as Sam walked to Clyde's side. She seemed rather upset about something.

"A double booty bash is good, but a triple one should be able to knock that lady out," Tabby stated, then gave an angry glance at Ronnie. "And before you ask, I'm only offering to help for Polly's sake, not yours."

Ronnie just rolled her eyes.

As for Clyde and Sam, the boy turned to the teenager and asked, "Are you going to help as well?"

"I'm only here to make sure Tabby doesn't get hurt, or things go wrong in the first place," Sam sternly stated, cracking her knuckles and shooting a glare at Clyde as she added, "And I swear, if something happens to my sweet little sister because of, I'm going to beat the orientation out of you!"

"...Be careful, girls!" Clyde shouted at the trio, only to turn back to Sam. "And also, would it be too much to ask for your assistance? 'Cause I have an idea-"

"And so do I, and therefore, your idea is rendered irrelevant," Sam booped Clyde's nose and chuckled. "Don't you worry, I'll make sure to buy you and the girls enough time to pull off your stupid little stunt."

Clyde raised an eyebrow. "What are you going to do?"

Sam turned to look at the Pink Champion, and summoned her energy blue-lavender-purple axe before stating:

"Just you wait and see."

 _Meanwhile, back with the Loud family..._

The siblings reached the end of the passage and walked through, only to find themselves in the middle of a seemingly endless upwards spiral room, with the walls being covered in crystal so shiny, the Louds could see their own reflections.

"Aw man, we, like, took a wrong turn," Leni sighed in disappointment.

And then Lori whispered to Leni's ear, "Knowing how the progenitor's dimensions work, we're unlikely to go back to the auditorium if we go back the way we came. I'll call Carol and see if she can pick us up."

Leni nodded, and Lori called the girl while the rest of her siblings checked the crystal mirrors. Most of them seemed fairly straightforward, just reflections of each respective Loud that mimicked their actions, except for Lola's who looked exactly like Lindsey Sweetwater.

Not only that, but whenever Lola did an action, the "reflection" just stood still, staring at the diva with a blank, indifferent look.

And then the "reflection" walked out of the mirror, revealing herself to be the real Lindsey Sweetwater.

Soon after, the rest of the mirrors' reflections morphed to reveal Proto-Lola, startling the Louds into backing away.

"You don't know how glad I am that you could take some time out of your busy schedule to pay me a visit, Jophiel," the reflections spoke in unison, with a mockingly friendly tone. "Now go on, show me what you're capable of. Destroy all these mirrors, or at least try to, with everything you got."

All eyes fell on Lola, who tilted her head in confusion."

"Okay, how about you use a Diamond Shower?" Proto-Lola suggested, exasperated by Lola's inaction.

Lola shook her head.

"Diamond Rain? Diamond Barrage?! Any "Diamond" attack except for "Flash"!?" Proto-Lola continued suggesting, getting angrier and angrier with each suggestion. "Did you seriously learn nothing new in your training!?"

The Louds gasped, and in Lori and Leni's case flinched, and Lola immediately remembered a certain moment she had with Carol in the days before the pageant...

 _Sometime ago..._

Carol and Lola were sitting on the table at the kitchen, where they could see the Louds training at the backyard outside. And though Carol seemed pleased at the scene, Lola looked like she couldn't care less about it.

"See, Lola? Your sisters are learning new techniques that could help them in the future, the training isn't completely useless," Carol remarked. "Surely there would be no problem with you-"

However, when she turned around, she saw Lola walking away, prompting her to ask, "Where are you going?"

"I'm not going to waste my time trying to learn techniques to fight!" Lola snapped, stomping the ground. "I'm a pageant princess, not a fighter! The training I need is beaut pageant training, and that's it!"

 _Back in the present..._

"I... learned nothing..." Lola remarked.

This turned everybody around speechless, with Lindsey in particular looking outright disappointed, while Proto-Lola seemed utterly stunned.

"You... learned... nothing?" Proto-Lola asked.

Lola looked at the ground, saying nothing. And as Lindsey shook her head and went back through the wall she came from, Proto-Lola and the reflections slowly started giggling, before they started laughing like madmen.

"Just because she hasn't learned how to fight doesn't mean we did the same!" Luna exclaimed, cracking her knuckles. "If you want to hurt her, you'll have to get through us!"

Proto-Lola smirked. "Will I really?"

The prototype diva snapped her fingers, and before they knew it, the Loud sisters-and Lincoln to an extent-were trapped inside crystal prison, completely immobilizing them.

In desperation, Lola tried to look around her surroundings for something she could do. Anything would work. But no matter where she looked, things looked incredibly grim: Her siblings encased in a diamond prison, stuck in a spiraling location with no way out, and Lola's last words before the crystallization happened echoing across the room, while being mixed by Proto-Lola's demented cackling.

With no options left, Lola covered her ears and crouched down, hoping to drown out some of the laughter.

"Stop laughing..."

Then, Lola spotted some shards laying around, and grabbed them with her left hand before aiming them at one of the reflections. Her eyes glew pink, and her left palm glew as well, as she shouted:

"Stop laughing at me!"

Lola threw the shards, and though she got the wrong reflection, the shards simply bounced all the way across the room until they phased through the wall leading to Proto-Lola's throne, hitting her right in the eye. And from that side, Lindsey flinched and slowly approached Proto-Lola, who ceased laughing and just layed on the ground, not even writhing in agony due to the shards.

"G-Gremory?"

 _Back with the Swaggers, Pink, and Clyde..._

The dark-skinned boy watched Polly spin around as she held hands with Tabby and Ronnie, holding on until Clyde gave the order. He then turned back to see Sam fighting, or at the very least keeping busy, the masked champion, dodging all of her attacks while occassionally hitting her as well.

"You know, I normally don't like being straight to the point, but you're rather hot," Sam stated, with no shame in her tone. "Would you like to? We can share my other girlfriend if you want."

Pink simply slapped the musician 'till she crashed on a wall, knocking her out in the process. This prompted Clyde to signal the trio to go, and Polly stopped spinning and threw Ronnie and Tabby at the champion with all her strength, and the sheer force of the speed surrounded them in an aura that had electricity surge around them.

And though the light alerted the champion of the incoming attack, a certain duo came out to help: Penelope and Leia, the former using the latter as a human shield. And somehow, this Leia shield was enough to put the attack to a stop, though it didn't completely stop them.

"Surprise, bitches!" Penelope scoffed. "You had forgotten about me, hadn't you?!"

"Good thing I remembered Penelope was still around," Clyde remarked before turning to Polly, who was getting ready to run while surrounded by an aura of fire. "Now's your turn, Polly!"

The girl nodded and bolted straight forward, leaving behind a trail of fire as she ran off, and eventually did a booty bash just before entering the clash, overpowering and sending Penelope and Leia flying off to elsewhere. And with nobody else to stop them, the trio's combined booty bash went straight to the pink champion, who charged up and counterattacked with a booty bash of her own.

But after a long clash, the triple booty bash overpowered the champion's, sending her flying straight into a crystal Wall, and crash through it in the process. And as the trio calmed down and caught their breath, the Pink Champion slid to the floor and collapsed... only to get up soon afterwards, though with a lot of difficulty.

Suddenly, the Pink Champion's mask cracked in half, and both halves came out and hit the ground, just as the champion revealed her real face. And this reveal shook Ronnie to the core, freezing her right in the spot.

"Carlota!?"

Before Ronnie Anne had a chance to process this revelation the whole cavern started to shake. And this wasn't the only place, for all the other caves connected to the landscape, even the one where Rita, Lynn Sr. and Carol were trapped, shook violently.

With pure fury overpowering every other emotion she could feel at the moment, Proto-Lola clenched her fists, crouched down, then leaped through the mirror.

This not only teleported her straight to Lola's location, but also shattered several of the domains housing people: The Loudsters, Clyde and Ronnie, Penelope and Leia, and specially Lindsey, all of the domains-and in the Loudsters case, their prisons- shattered completely, with the shards flying in the air and the broken gems slowly separating as Proto-Lola got closer and closer to a terrified Lola, shouting at the top of her lungs:

"Jophiel!"

* * *

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"Hi everybody, Lindsey here!"

The people at the ground, including Lana and Winston, watched the floating building collapse and shatter into pieces.

"I thought things wouldn't get worse after revealing Lola's colors, but this is terrible! "

A bunch of random stuff happened, with the most eye-catching being: Lola watching as "Lincoln" fought Proto-Lola, Ronnie Anne throwing several lighting bolts at Carlota, and Bobby and Chandler flying in clouds.

"This is what the other Lola wanted, isn't it? I knew she couldn't be trusted!"

Speaking of Proto-Lola, the prototype flew closer towards Lola, crystal still stuck in her eye. Not that it seemed to bother her that much.

"There has to be something I can do... I got it!"

The scene changed to show Lindsey showing a tea party she somehow set up in a short amount of time, surprising Proto-Lola, who was grabbed Lincoln at the moment.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Lindsey and Proto-Lola sat down, discussing something as, in another scene, Lana and Lola exchanged looks before the diva hugged her tomboy sister.

"Crystal Clear Confusion?! Proto-Lola's Plan Fall Apart!"

Proto-Lola walked forward, with a forced smile hiding her anger, before shattering her teacup in anger.

"Don't miss it."

Finally, Lincoln opened his eyes, revealing they now had orange sclera and spades-shaped pupils.


	15. Crystal Clear Confusion

**I know what you're thinking: Exotos, why are you posting this so early, rather than waiting until this sunday to post it? Well, the truth is, I honestly think this is the best option I can take to finish this arc before I move.**

 **Let me explain: I'm moving to Peru on the 15th of April, that's still true, however, going from hints I've been hearing, it looks like my mom, sister, and I are actually going to leave starting on next Friday, stay somewhere on Saturday, then get early on Sunday to catch the plane. At least, that's what I think it is, but bottom line is, if I keep the schedule normal, there's a chance that the hiatus could happen before I'm able to post the climax of this arc.**

 **I've been a part of the Gravity Falls, Wander Over Yonder, Phineas and Ferb, and many other fandoms who have completely lost their dang minds over the long waits. And while I don't really consider myself anything like the channels these shows air on (If that was the case, I'd be writting a movie for this AU before the second arc was even finished XD), I do want to try avoid the same double-edge sword they tend to land themselves into: Go on a hiatus for a long time, despite the fact that they can premiere new episodes.**

 **Yes, I know it's important to stay on a schedule, but it's also important to try and only start a hiatus during a period of time where people would need to take a break from all the excitement, rather than during a period of time when it's quite clear there's another chapter coming, only for it to not come for months at best.**

 **Yes, I know you guys are patient, but if it's in my power to end this arc BEFORE a hiatus happens? I'll do it.**

 **So, with that out of the way, let's go to the reviews:**

 **1) LoudAutomata16: Sam and Ronnie Anne... that's the most terrifying combination I've ever heard of. XD**

 **2) Nobody245: I may have worded my answer poorly, so let me try again: The lovechildren, regardless of whether their families were caring or not, were forced to join the "army party" once the progenitors' forces (they had chain breakers before the lovechildren were a thing) invaded their home dimensions. And seeing how powerful and insane the progenitors are, it's either follow their rule and do their bidding, or die trying to rebel against seemingly omnipotent beings. Also, I didn't expect you to be a fan of SVTFOE, that was a nice little surprise. :)**

 **3) Ricky17: The lovechildren appeared since last chapter, dude. Also, "This isn't even my final plot twist!"**

 **4) GennaiArakida-XIV: Hi pal, long time no see!**

 *** Because the progenitors don't discriminate: They will screw over anybody as long as they get what they want.**

 *** "Yes." -Sam.**

 *** Hey, at least it's not Keijo!**

 *** Yeah, and this is Proto-Lola being _merciful_.**

 **5) Finnjr63: Thanks! :)**

 **6) Guest: Omega Ultra, is that you?**

 **7) ChernoMan100: I counted you as the 100th. And yeah, I kinda was. XD**

 **8) Observant Guest:**

 *** Yeah, let's hope nothing bad happens to them *hint, hint***

 *** Well, what would you say if I told you that you've already seen the rest of the champions' civillian identities?**

 *** It's a start, at least.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 15: Crystal Clear Confusion?! Proto-Lola's Plan Fall Apart!**

* * *

 _Streets of Royal Woods..._

Lana continued to run towards the building, or the big hole that was left behind after it flew off to the sky anyway. Not that it was hard to find, since the spot was surrounded by several people, the news crew included, who were making a broadcast about the situation at the moment.

"This is Catherine Sweetwater, reporting live on the Royal Woods streets," Catherine said as the camera crew recorded her, just before they turned to look up at the building. "Several feet above me is the building where the beauty pageant for the "Gremorian Crown of Beauty" was to take place. However, due to unknown circumstances, the building has been elevated and is now covered in crystal. What this means is currently unknown."

Just then, Lana arrived and looked up towards the building, just as everybody else in the vicinity. She then felt an odd presence, and turned around to spot Winston also looking at the building with worry. She then ran to the boy's side and grabbed his shoulders as she asked, "Hey, you're Winston, right?!"

"Yeah, that's me," the boy somberly answered. "I came to the pageant to act as a judge-"

"I don't give two peanuts about your involvement with the pageant!" Lana yelled, shaking the boy violently. "I just want to know what happened to the pageant, and specially my sister, Lola!"

"Well, I really don't want to sound like a jerk, but it's precisely because of your sister that the building is covered in crystals and floating high above in the sky. Well, both her and Lindsey's fault!" Winston freed himself from Lana's grasp and dusted himself. "Lindsey asked an uncomfortable question to Lola, and even had the audacity to televise it, so Lola got into a bit of a rant and then boom, a pillar of light comes out of her and the whole building ends up covered in crystals, with no apparent way to get out."

It wasn't long before Lana pointed something out. "Wait, then how are you out here instead of being trapped inside there like everybody else?"

"I don't know, the flashing light of the pillar knocked me unconscious, and the next thing I know, me and the reporter over there are outside of the place," Winston added, looking back at the floating building with confusion as he added, "And then the place started to shake, and next thing we knew, it was flying towards the sky."

Lana turned to look back at the building, and for some reason, what seemed to be glowing cracks slowly spread all around it as the building suddenly stopped. However, before what this meant could be questioned, the building seemingly blew up and fell apart, with everyone reacting in complete shock at the event, specially Lana, who screamed at the top of her lungs while pulling her ponytails.

 _And she wasn't the only one..._

At the organization, the team of Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Shrinivas, Mrs. DiMartino, Coach Pacowski, and Greg all watched from the monitor as the building collapsed and broke in pieces. Mrs. Johnson clasped her hands, Mrs. Shrinivas looked at the ground, Mrs. DiMartino covered her mouth and looked like she was about to cry, and Pacowski stood still, seemingly freezed in shock.

As for Greg? The lanky man got up and walked towards a phone, seemingly staying calm despite the terrifying implications of the explosion. Something that quickly got on Pacowski's nerves, "Are you serious?! The building practically blew up, with several people still inside, and you're just going to do a phone call?"

"Scan the remains for life signals," Greg stated as he marked a number. "Just because the building "practically blew up" as you say, doesn't mean there were no survivors."

With that statement, Pacowski raised an eyebrow while the teachers nearby did as Greg requested, and the scan eventually got several signatures: The Loud children, the Swaggers, and even one that was basically glitching the system, presumably belonging to Proto-Lola.

"Greg's right!" Mrs. Johnson shouted, getting Pacowski's attention. "There are several survivors! We need to gather a team and head to recover both them, and the parents if possible."

Pacowski glanced back at Greg, who just focused on his phone call, before rolling his eyes and going with the teachers to make up the team. Once they were out, Greg's phone call was finally answered, with a familiar voice on the other end:

"What do you need, Greg?"

"Chandler, you saw the news, didn't you?" the man asked, folding his arms. "In case you haven't, the building Lindsey's at just collapsed, among other bizarre things, and I need you to go pick up Lindsey and take her back to safety, if possible."

"Understood, I'll go out as soon as I can."

Greg nodded and hung up the call. He returned to the screens, and pushed a couple buttons to focus on a specific team, this being Carol, Lynn Sr., Rita, and the Eidoleias. Despite falling from an extreme height, and falling at high speeds as well, the trio still focused on fighting the Eidoleias, who simply "flew" around waving their claws wildly, attacking at complete random.

First, Rita spread her arms and formed an "X" shape, somehow forming a crystal shield around her just before some Eidoleias lunged at her, with the beasts shattering to pieces upon clashing with the shield.

Then, Lynn Sr. scratched his chin and chuckled to himself while some Eidoleias surrounded him. He then reached for his back and took out a bouquet of flowers, which caught the girls' attention. They leaned closer, and snatched the bouquet, which they looked closer at before the man snapped his fingers, causing the flowers to blow up and take the Eidoleias with it.

Finally, Carol opened two portals and threw one at a group of Eidoleias coming her way, somehow trapping them in the process. She then threw the remaining portal at another group of Eidoleias, and trapped them as well, before making both portals clash at each other and explode, destroying the Eidoleias as well.

And then a dozen more of those things materialized out of thin air.

"It's pointless, these Eidoleias will just keep coming until the Leia generating them is defeated!" Carol exclaimed, forming a couple energy balls before throwing them at some incoming Eidoleias, and then she snapped her fingers, blowing up the phantom beasts. "I could try deal with her, but-"

Once the smoke dispersed, however, one of the spots revealed a dark blue portal, from where the Blue Champion came out. Though surprised for a moment, Carol soon calmed down and exchanged looks with the champion, before nodding with them and flying off to deal with someone else, while the champion flew and split an eidoleia in half, causing her to explode into dust.

"Oh great, now one of the champion's here?!" Rita remarked in exasperation. "As if we didn't have enough things to deal with!"

"Hold on, Honey, I think she's just helping us!" Lynn Sr. stated, stopping his wife moments before she dashed towards the champion.

The blue champion turned to look at the parents, and then flew towards them and shot a laser at some incoming eidoleias, melting them in half. She then turned, alongside Rita, to face some more eidoleias, taking out her claws just as Rita covered her fists in crystal, then punched the eidoleias right in the face, shattering them to dust. At this point, Rita did realice the champion was helping, but she didn't seem too happy about it.

"Why are you helping us?" Rita asked before grabbing an Eidoleia, and smashing her against the Eidoleia held by the Blue Champion, causing them to shatter into dust. "I mean, aren't Gremory and Barbatos supposed to be twin deities? I thought they'd help each other succeed, not try to beat each other up."

"The fact you still think that the progenitors never fight with each other proves how much of a "Leni" you are," Blue Champion scoffed, earning a furious look from Rita. "They're divine beings beyond our comphrehension, driven to pure madness thanks to eons of isolation, and whose own kingdom is long gone. They'll screw each other's plans if it means entertaining themselves, even if its just for a moment."

An Eidoleia tried to lunge at the Blue Champion, but Lynn Sr. came out of nowhere with a frying pan and smacked it as hard as he could, shattering it to pieces. "Rita, what the masked kid's trying to say is that, whenever one of the progenitors' forces are actively fighting against our same enemy, we should take their help while we still can."

"Fine, I get it!" Rita folded her arms. "But I don't trust this little brat."

Blue Champion simply grabbed an incoming Eidoleia and launched her at Rita, who simply kneed her in the gut, shattering her as well. Lynn Sr. sighed and rubbed his forehead, for all he could do was hope nothing happened to worsen the situation.

 _Meanwhile, with the Lolas and Lincoln..._

Lola was sent flying to a falling piece of debris, catching Lincoln in the process, and causing the two to crash in said piece of debris. And as the debris broke apart and the pair were slowly separated, Proto-Lola slowly "flew" towards them, taking several deep breaths as she slowly reached for the crystal stuck on her eye.

"You know, Jophiel, I had no idea what to expect from meeting you again, I honestly didn't," Proto-Lola stated, grabbing the crystal on her eye and wincing for a moment before adding, "I mean, last time we met, I fought you with everything I could to try and stop you and your sisters from ruining everything. Granted, you were being empowered by Lincoln back then, but he did jackshit compared to you and your sisters."

Proto-Lola slowly pulled the crystal, then yanked it right out of her socket in one swift swing, taking her eye along with it. From the hollow socket came out some orange-ish liquid, which apparentl let out some steam as Proto-Lola took a deep breath and glanced at her eye-crystal, before turning back to the seemingly unconscious Lola, at least judging by how the girl wasn't moving.

"But now, look at yourself, defeated after a single punch," the proto-diva growled. "And not only that, but you rejected training you could've used, just to work on a clearly rigged beauty pageant-I mean, did you seriously not see there was something wrong about it?! You're supposed to be my descendant, my successor as a goddess of beauty and glamour, and just look at yourself!"

Lola, of course, said nothing. Proto-Lola shook her head, "I don't even feel ofended or angry anymore, I'm just... disappointed."

"Nice to see I'm not the only one disappointed."

The prototype diva flinched at the statement, and recognizing the voice belonged to someone she hated, she crushed the crystal with her bare hand and turned to look at Lincoln, who was no longer moving. The boy then flipped himself and turned to face the prototype before opening his eyes, revealing they had orange sclera, and spades-shaped pupils.

"So, you finally show yourself..." Proto-Lola folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. "Lincoln."

"Oh please, Lincoln's both my name and my successor's name, try to come up with something different, will you?" "Lincoln" argued, scratching his chin as he thought about it. "Something like Godlycoln, or Omnicoln, or even Divinecoln, something that will let everybody know how I'm the god everyone should fear and respect!"

"Then how about something that also lets everybody know how they should be joining forces against you?" Proto-Lola scoffed and smirked. "Something like... Sincoln?"

"I'll be honest, that has a nice ring to it, but-" Sincoln was suddenly kicked in the gut by Proto-Lola, sending him plummeting to the ground, or at least that was the case until he regained his composure and seemingly flew back to face the proto-diva. "Hey, no fair, I wasn't ready!"

Proto-Lola covered her fist in pink diamond crystal and punched Sincoln right in the face, shouting "Precisely!" with a demented smile. And as the fight between Proto-Lola and "Sincoln" began, Lola's eyes remained lifeless... until she blinked once.

 _Meanwhile, with Carol..._

The girl flew as fast as she could while taking a look around for Leia, who she found arguing with Penelope. More specifically, Leia was arguing, while Penelope put her arms behind her back and ignored her, even as they were plummeting down to the ground.

"What makes you think you can use me in the way you did and get away with it!?" Leia snapped, flailing her arms up and down in rage. "Don't you know I'm someone important?! I'm a lovechild of Lincoln and Lola! I deserve respect!"

"We've been through this before: My boss doesn't consider you hot stuff, her champion doesn't see you as a big deal, and even your own boss doesn't like you! The fact you're a child of a Lincoln, a kind that the progenitors don't like at all, doomed you to be forever be seen as a chew toy, something to be used and discarded when you have no more use," Penelope bluntly stated. "I'm not gonna mince words here; A freaking Bun-Bun could walk all over you, and nobody would bat an eye! That's just how little you matter!"

Leia clenched her fists and held back some tears. "I-I'm important! I really am!"

"The only person who even cares about you is your father, the "Other Lincoln." Penelope winced at having to say the guy's "denomination." "And guess what? If your daddy had come along, he would've been killed, just like every other Lincoln in the Loudverse! And you would've been next, if Gremory didn't have plans for you!"

Leia fell silent. And then Carol arrived.

"Hey, don't feel sad, you can have fun being beaten up by this lady over here!" Penelope crossed her arms and growled, "As for me, I'm outta here!"

The girl whistled, and soon afterwards, a girl that looked similar to Lynn arrived and grabbed Penelope, who sat on her back as she flapped a pair of firey wings. She had lighter hair than Lynn, buck teeth, and her uniform was similar to Leia's, only with red replacing the pink parts and the chained symbol being a fist, rather than a diamond.

"Lacy, what the heck!" Leia whined at the tomboy. "You know she's part of Gremory's caste, not your boss' caste!"

"I know, but this girl here has gained Gusion's favor in a... peculiar way," Lacy explained, shrugging as Penelope stuck out her tongue at Leia. "Besides, personality-wise, she's much more fitting for Gusion's caste than Gremory's. Anyway, gotta go."

Penelope chuckled as Lacy flew away with her, leaving Leia alone to deal with Carol. Or at least, that's what she thought, for she soon noticed the Swaggers, Ronnie, Clyde, and specially Carlota felling down nearby, and she chuckled and flew off right away to meet them, Carol chasing her immediately afterwards.

As for those guys, Tabby, Polly, and Clyde were trying to stay up in the air as high as they could, or at least survive until Sam recovered consciousness. If they couldn't prevent falling to their death, at least they could fall on top of Sam to soften the impact! Ronnie Anne and Carlota, however, stared sternly at each other, their sights focused strictly at the other as Ronnie narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists.

"So, let me see if I got this right," the freckled tomboy started, getting a raised eyebrow from her cousin. "Not only did you put me a collar that could've killed me, but you're also working for one of the progenitors that are trying to kill us?!"

"The truth isn't so black and white, Ronnie, and it's certainly not as simple as how you just described it," Carlota replied, grabbing her arm as she looked elsewhere. "And, if I was talking with somebody else, I probably would try to explain myself... but I know you well enough to know it's outright pointless to discuss anything with you."

Ronnie's sclera turned black, her pupils turned light blue, and her fists were surrounded by light blue electricity as she hissed, "What are you talking about?!"

"You honestly don't understand, Ronnie? You're impatient, headstrong, and right now, you're probably too upset and confused to think rationally," the unmasked pink champion closed her eyes. "Let's assume I did explain my reasons for doing what I did to you. Would you believe me? Would you even listen?"

The electricity surging through Ronnie grew more volatile. "Don't try to pull the "angst" card with me, Carlota! Now shut up and tell me what I want to know!"

The champion opened her eyes again, revealing they had black sclera and pink pupils. "I have nothing to tell you."

Just then, Ronnie Anne somehow concentrated her energy on her left arm, and threw a lighting bolt at Carlota, who summoned a crystal shield around herself that caused it to bounce off elsewhere. It took Ronnie some time to process what happened, but mere seconds later, she fired several lighting bolts at her cousin, who didn't even flinch as her shield made the bolts bounce off to random spots.

And then Leia arrived right next to Carlota, only to be punted away by Carol into the girl's shield, which made her flinch for a second. She recovered soon afterwards, however, and continued to maintain the shield as Ronnie continued shooting lighting bolts at her cousin, which continued to bounce away, with some landing right on Leia and Carol.

However, unlike Leia, Carol recovered quickly enough and formed a shield around her, which seemingly not only blocked, but absorbed the lighting bolts, causing it to grow stronger. With this, Carol took the moment to take a look at her surroundings, and she quickly spotted a disraught Lana sitting close to a lake. So she teleported out of the portal, and clenched her hand, making it blow up into lighting bolts that attacked Leia as Carol flew to Lana's side.

As for the other fight, Ronnie continued shooting lighting bolts in pure rage.

"Ronnie Anne, stop it!" Clyde exclaimed at the top of his lungs. "As long as Carlota has that shield up, nothing you do can hurt her!"

Ronnie Anne didn't respond. She growled and groaned as her lighting bolt barrage continued, but that was it.

"Ugh, it's useless, her rage has driven her deaf!" Clyde turned to Polly and Tabby. "Do either of you know how we could get out of this mess?"

"Luckily for us, we do, and Sam's not awake to stop me from doing it!" Tabby stated as she took out her phone and marked a number. "Now, for all of us to get out of here, I need you too-"

Suddenly, a light blue flash... flashed, and Ronnie and Clyde were no longer around, with the blue flash going away as Tabby and Polly looked at it. They then turned around to see Carlota, who took a deep breath before whistling. This brought Leia to her side, who teleported both of them away soon afterwards.

Believing enough was enough, Tabby started her call...

 _At Maggie's bedroom..._

The emo teenage girl rested on her bed, moving her legs up and down while mindlessly looking at the ceiling, until she heard her phone ring. She took it out, and once she saw Tabby was the one calling, she smiled and answered the call.

"Hi sis, how's everything going?" Maggie greeted.

Tabby explained thus:

"The building we were at got crystallized, flew high into the sky, I joined Polly and some Hispanic jerk to defeat some masked bird, one who knocked Sam unconscious, and now we're falling to our doom!"

Maggie shook her head. "Of course, the fact Sam came along made it inevitable that things would get weird. Say, knock knock?"

Tabby paused. "Who's there?"

"You."

"You who?"

"Your friends and you are right above me."

As if it was an act of magic, Tabby, Polly and Sam materialized right above on Maggie's bedroom, and fell: Polly, Tabby, while Sam hit the floor. With that done, Tabby hugged Maggie, and Polly went to check on the freckled tomboy and Sam.

"What the heck just happened?" Sam asked, before noticing where she was. "And what are we doing here?!"

"Calm down, Sam, you were unconscious," Maggie stated the girl as she gently petted Tabby. "As for what happened, the best way I can describe it is that Tabby called me, and I used my caste's powers to teleport you here."

And then Maggie's phone rang again, with a familiar voice on the other end: "Hello, Maggie, you there?!"

"Looks like Luan had the same idea," Maggie sighed, paused, then took a deep breath before answering, "Knock knock."

Luan giggled. "Who's there?"

"You."

"You who?"

"You and your friends," Maggie paused and glanced at the worried Tabby, only to smirk before finishing, "Are right above my backyard."

Tabby sighed in relief as the same happened with most of the Loud sisters screamed from outside, before being followed by a loud *THUD*. The team walked to the window and saw the sisters at the backyard, with some even being stuck on the tree.

"Sorry, I kinda had to find another place to send you, and I couldn't think of anywhere else!" Maggie chuckled darkly as Polly counted the sisters. "Besides, Luan knows me well enough that I'd only ever help her if she got hurt in return."

"Let's see, Luna, Leni, Lori..." Polly said, scratching her chin as she squinted his eyes. "I think you got most of them-"

And then she realized something, "Wait a minute, where's Lynn?!"

 _Meanwhile, with Lynn..._

The jock slowly woke up to find herself close to a lake, with the biker trio nearby her. They were all wet from head to toe, and though they were starting to get dry, the trio still shivered, prompting Lynn to carefully crawl towards them.

"Good, you're finally awake."

The athlete turned to look at the source of the voice, and saw Penelope and Lacy, the former still riding the latter as they hovered above the quartet. Lynn gritted her teeth and growled, but the redhead just chuckled and said:

"Relax, we're not here to hurt you. In fact, we just helped you."

Lacy then added. "You four fell into the lake, and you were knocked out unconscious. Seeing this, Penelope, the girl riding on my back, helped me get you four out and dry you up a bit my the heat of my fire wings."

Lynn glanced at the shivering trio, and hugged them tightly as she turned back to Penelope and asked, "Why... did you help us?"

"Hey, it never hurts to make people owe you something," the redhead smugly answered, narrowing her eyes as she added, "And besides, I couldn't let you or your little girls die just yet. Your counterpart has plans for you, and those three still have to pray to the "Lincoln" everybody seems obsessed with lately. But that's it from us, we're leaving!"

"W-Wait a minute, you work for my counterpart?!" Lynn exclaimed, standing up before shouting, "What the hell does she want?! What's her pla-"

Suddenly, Lynn's injury pain reacted and caused her to fall back to her knees, causing Penelope to chuckle as Lacy explained, "You better calm down before you start asking those questions. And besides, there are children here, watch your mouth!"

Lynn gritted her teeth and growled as Lacy turned around and Penelope slapped her butt cheeks, causing her to fly away as fast as she could. And as they left, Penelope shouted, "If you wanna get dry, just try turning yourself into a living heater!"

Though she didn't get it at first, Lynn's attention quickly returned to the biker trio, who continued to shiver. So Lynn hugged them, and soon enough, her body-mostly her stomach-started glowing a red-ish orange as her body heat increased, without hurting Lynn in the process. The trio stopped shivering, and hugged Lynn back, who returned the hug while thinking:

" _I really need to learn more about how my body works, hehe._ "

 _Meanwhile, with Lana..._

The tomboy plumber continued to sit down at the edge of the lake shore, where she saw her own reflection in the water. She shed a tear, and it fell and hit the water, causing it to "flow" into a reflection of Lola. And though confused by this, she didn't have time to think about it, since Carol arrived soon afterwards.

"Heya," Carol greeted as she sat next to Lana. "What's wrong?"

Lana turned away. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"Listen, Lana, I know trying to butt into business that doesn't concern me is troublesome, and I understand if you feel uncomfortable talking about it," Carol sighed. "But, if you don't tell me about it, you're unlikely to get any closer to dealing with it. And besides, the situation's kinda hectic, so-"

"It's Lola."

Carol turned to Lana. "What?"

Lana turned back to Carol, and stood up and exclaiming, "It's Lola! We got into a fight earlier, which convinced me to walk away from her, and next thing I know, the building's going up and covered in crystal! And what makes it worse is the building fell to pieces!"

Lana calmed down and fell on her knees. "I could've at least been there to protect her, but now... she and the others are probably dead..."

"But Lana, they're okay and Lola's still alive," Carol said, putting a hand on Lana's shoulder as she added, "She's just plummeting to the lake while her counterpart's probably beating the stuffing out of her-"

"What!?" Lana yelled, then grabbed and pulled Carol closer to her. "You have to take me to where she is, right now!"

"But-"

"Now!"

 _Speaking of Lola..._

The broken diva continued to plummet, all while the fight between "Sincoln" and her prototype counterpart continued. And as they fought, Lola lost herself in thought:

" _What was I thinking? Why didn't I see this pageant was rigged from the start?_ "

Proto-Lola covered one of her arms and aimed it at Sincoln before shouting "Diamond Machine-Gun!"

This caused her crystal arm to shoot several crystals at Sincoln's direction, which the fallen deity managed to dodge for the most part, only getting a couple scratches at his sleeves before he launched himself towards the proto-diva and tackled her.

" _A beauty pageant having the exact same crown that Lincoln saw in his dream was just too good to be true... and it was._ "

Proto-Lola kicked Sincoln back, then created a diamond-shaped shield before aiming her crystal arm at it. She shouted "Diamond Laser!" and a laser came out of her arm, which was amplified by the diamond shield. However, Sincoln simply teleported away and aimed his palm at the proto-diva before shouting "Lunar Screech!"

Nothing happened, and the fallen deity's confusion gave Proto-Lola enough time to elbow him in the gut and kick him upwards.

" _My counterpart planned it from the start... she made this beauty pageant, just to break me... and I never thought that could be a possibility._ "

Sincoln recovered his composure and lunged at Proto-Lola, who side-stepped before aiming her crystal arm upwards and shouting "Diamond Rain!"

This caused several diamond-shaped energy balls to go up, only to then explode into several more shard-like energy blasts that flew down, with most catching Sincoln off-guard and helping Proto-Lola kick him, sending both of them crashing down at a nearby piece of land.

" _I just acted the same way I did: I focused on beauty pageant practice, and on nothing else. Praciting my caste abilities, training my body for fighting, none of those things came to mind... and I'm paying the price..._ "

And then, a familiar figure arrived and "butterfly swam" her way towards Lola: Lindsey.

" _What? Lindsey? But... we're rivals... lifetime enemies... is she... is she going to help me?_ "

Lindsey extended her arm towards Lola, only for a light blue flash to catch her, leaving Lola alone once more.

" _Of course... I let my imagination trick me again... Lindsey would never help me... not after what I did to her..._ "

Lola closed her eyes just as a portal opened to her side.

" _Maybe... maybe I deserve this-_ "

From the portal leaped Lana, who hugged Lola as tightly as she could as the twins were sent plummeting back to the shore Lana was, only to continue crashing until they hit a tree. However, the twins didn't suffer damage, since they were surrounded by a rock-like shield before the impact.

With that done, Lola opened her eyes again, and took a look at her surroundings as the rock-shield dissipated, allowing her to see her rescuer, who smiled at her with relief.

And then Lola hugged her twin, who hugged back after a moment of shock.

 _Meanwhile, with Lindsey..._

The girl looked around the skies for any signs of Lola, while she was sitting on a cloud that was being driven by none other than Chandler. When she failed to find the diva, she turned to the redheaded boy and yelled:

"Chandler?! What the heck are you doing?!"

"Sorry if you were busy with something, but Greg told me to find you and take you home as soon as I could," Chandler sternly answered. "Would you rather stay here and potentially die?"

"No, but... there's something I need to do..." Lindsey looked at the place Lincoln and Proto-Lola crashed at, then pointed at it. "Take me there, and wait until I tell you to pick me up, please."

Though hesitant to oblige, Chandler knew better than anybody that trying to argue with Lindsey would only end in the girl whining and insisting until she either drove him nuts, or won the argument. So the guy did as told and took the girl to the land before flying off to leave her to her own devices.

And the first thing she saw was Proto-Lola standing nearby a groaning Lincoln.

"Ugh, s-stop it, I-I'm not the Sincoln you're talking about!" Lincoln exclaimed as Proto-Lola grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and lifted him. "I'm not him, I swear!"

"Well, if what you're saying is the truth, then that gives me an idea of how you actually work," Proto-Lola narrowed her eyes. "You're a vessel for my Lincoln, or Sincoln if you wanna call him that, which he's using in order to calm down after creating this entirely "new" reality. However, by doing so, both you and he lost all the powers you used to have in the original reality."

Proto-Lola raised her free arm, and crystallized her hand, turning her fingernails into claws. "For example, the "Lunar Screech" he tried earlier was from Luna's caste. And this cystallization, of course, is part of my caste. You could do this all before, but you threw it all away, just to "run away" from "the mean sisters" that "abused you day and night" and all that jazz."

Lincoln raised an eyebrow, prompting Proto-Lola to sigh:

"Of course, since you're the new Lincoln, you don't know anything of what I'm talking about, but to be blunt: We're not as bad as what your other self implies. He made a great mistake, one of the worst he's done in eons."

Proto-Lola got an idea and smirked before aiming her crystal claws at Lincoln's neck.

"And what better way to make him pay than by killing him while he's still mortal?"

Seeing this, Lindsey got an idea and yelled, "Wait!"

The fighting suddenly stopped, and Proto-Lola and Lincoln turned to look at Lindsey, who now held a teacup on her left hand.

"Tea time!" the redhead exclaimed, lifting her pinky finger.

Proto-Lola was baffled. "Pardon me?"

"Well, I couldn't suggest a tea party while we were falling to our doom now, could I?" Lindsey argued as she started to set up a tea party... in the middle of the battlefield. "I just want to try and come to a new agreement with you."

Proto-Lola looked at Lincoln, who just shrugged in equal confusion before she kicked him unconscious, then turned back to see Lindsey had somehow finished the tea party set up in the few seconds the proto-diva's eyes weren't looking at her.

"Specially because, now that I think about it, our former agreement isn't quite... equal, for both parties," the redhead continued speaking as she poured the tea. "You see, you already got what you originally wanted: Your original Lincoln came out and you beat him, you broke your daughter's spirit by showing her how stupid she was for training the wrong way or whatever; But, you could have more.

The prototype diva narrowed her eyes and walked closer to the party, before taking a seat, her focus strictly on the redhead. She then looked at the simple tea that was served, then reached for her back and took out some sort of pink herb, which she put on the tea before brewing it.

"Um, what are you putting on the tea?" Lindsey asked, slightly worried.

"Oh, these things? They're gifts from my Lincolnist followers; sugar-like herbs made from grounded up gems like amethysts, emeralds, and so on, though this one's made of rose quartz," Proto-Lola nonchalantly explained, before offering some red-pink herbs to Lindsey. "Would you like some? These are made from cuprites."

"No thanks," Lindsey glanced at the herbs, then sheepishly answered, "I was advised not to try and eat grounded up gemstones."

"Meh, your loss, not mine," Proto-Lola ate the herbs, then drank some of her tea before asking, "So, what proposal do you wanna make?"

Lindsey sighed in relief on the inside, and began talking...

 _Back with the twins..._

Lola and Lana got up and dusted themselves as they took the moment to calm down and relax.

"Lana, I'm so sorry for acting the way I did earlier," Lola said, regret clear in her tone. "I shouldn't have put some random beauty pageant over you."

"Hey, It's okay, Lola," Lana patted her twin sister's back. "I'm just glad my little sister's okay."

The twins exchanged looks, and Lana put a hand on Lola's shoulder as she said, "And now, it's time for me to do what I should've done in the first place: Help my sister out."

Then the plumber turned to Lola. "You got any ideas?"

Lola turned back to her left arm, and looked at the diamond symbol glowing on her palm. This was enough to give her a plan, which she whispered to Lana's ear.

"You do know what'll happen even if that plan succeeds, right?" the tomboy plumber worriedly pointed out. "Are you sure you wanna take the risk?"

The diva covered her arm in crystal, then turned it back to normal before asking with a smirk, "You got anything better?"

Lana smiled. "Well, in that case-"

 _Back with Lindsey and Proto-Lola's tea party..._

"I understand, and even approve, of the proposal you give me," Proto-Lola stated, taking another sip of her tea before adding, "And of course you put something else in that deal in order to get something too yourself."

The prototype diva put her teacup down, and narrowed her eyes. "However, I find it suspicious that you would be so quick to try and give me another proposal after everything had gone the way it did."

Lindsey looked elsewhere as Proto-Lola continued:

"I mean, you got what you wanted in breaking Jophiel's facade through the world, and I managed to further break her, to an extent. But what you're suggesting now, is something that would actually benefit your eternal rival in the long run. Do you have any sort of ulterior motives?"

The bandaged redhead looked elsewhere and tried to think about something to say, but Proto-Lola shut her up, as the sight of Lola and Lana talking together caught her attention.

"Nevermind, something much more important has come up," Proto-Lola took a final sip of her tea and stood up. "I accept your proposal, but I don't want you to suddenly decide to change or add something to it once I'm done with my part. This proposition, is final, understood?"

Lindsey silently nodded, and simply watched as Proto-Lola flew to confront the twins, leaving her to help the beaten up Lincoln get up. As for the twins? Let's just say Proto-Lola wasn't that subtle at making her presence known.

"Well, would you look at that," Proto-Lola growled, her forced smile failing to hide her furious anger as she slowly squeezed her tea cup. "First, I'm stabbed in the freaking eye, then, my whole plan falls apart because a certain someone decided to piss me off. And now, I have to deal with both your attitude, Jophiel, and Barbatos's daughter, who's here for some reason."

Lana cracked her knuckles as Proto-Lola added, "Be honest, Hayyel, your mother sent you here just to piss me off, didn't she?"

"I'm not here on anyone's orders, Not-Lola!" Lana stated, causing Proto-Lola to shatter her teacup as an aura formed around her. "I'm just here to help my little sister, just like I should've done earlier. And this time, we're both going to take you down!"

Lola and Lana exchanged determined looks and, sharing understanding nods, the duo looked forward to see Proto-Lola lunging at them while still surrounded by the intense aura, and the twins charged at her as well, ready to put an end to this plan once and for all.

* * *

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"Hi everybody, Lola here!"

Lola and Lana fought Proto-Lola, with a brief glimpse of Carol fighting Leia and a Bun-Bun-like girl before going back to the twins. And then it showed the sisters, and eventually Clyde and Ronnie, at Maggie's backyard.

"The final battle against my counterpart has finally begun! And I really hope the rest of my sisters are okay as this happens."

In another scene, it showed Lynn, with fire wings on her back and smoke coming out of her palm. And then it cut back to Carol's fight with Leia and not-Bun-Bun, until they were smacked away with a tree.

"But even with Lana, and even Lynn's help, I can't help but feel I'm the only one who can end this..."

The one who used the tree as a club was revealed to be Leni, before the scene changed to show Luna punching Lori in the face... to little to no effect.

"So, I call forth the power of my caste! Help me defeat my counterpart once and for all!"

Suddenly, Proto-Lola, who now had part of her face burned off, exploded in rage and flew towards Lana and Lynn in a fit of fury.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

What looked like the past showed Proto-Lola, alongside several unconscious members of her caste, facing off against somebody else. And then, the vision of that ended, giving Lola an idea on what she could do.

"Crystal Clear Conclusion! Lola and Lana Versus Proto-Lola! Rise Forth, Angel Jophiel!"

Lynn's bersoreker form returned and she leaped towards the enraged Proto-Lola.

"Don't miss it."

Lola closed her eyes and clasped her hands, and levitated up in the air as pink energy flew towards her. Until she was surrounded by pink light.


	16. Crystal Clear Conclusion

**Here it is, the grand finale of the Proto-Lola arc! And oh boy, is it a doozy, because we got a double-length chapter here, folks! That's basically like a 22-minute episode! XD**

 **Anyway, this chapter will feature the conclusion of the Proto-Lola fight, the Proto-Lola arc as a whole, and a hopefully short hiatus before we resume with the Proto-Lana arc. Although, it might be a while because, as I'm typing this, I... haven't quite finished writing that story arc yet. And if I act careless,** **I may run out of Manga material to adapt! XD**

 **Also, since chapter 15 was posted a bit earlier this week, around Thursday or Wednesday I believe, I suggest you read that chapter before this one, as it also explains why I chose to update earlier.**

 **Also, if you can, give "Chains of Reality: Caste Examination" a read. In that story, you'll get to see some abilities shown by certain castes, that way you won't have to wait dozens upon dozens of chapters to see them in action.**

 **And also, try to read "Chains of Reality: Genderbended" too. No plot or lore important reason, it's just a fun little one-shot I wrote.**

 **Also also also, my flight was delayed due to issues with the country I was going to stay at first. Now we'll be leaving on the week after the 16th.**

 **But anyway, I'm excited for the ending, so without further ado, to the reviews!**

 **1) LoudAutomata16: I know, I'm clever at naming things XD**

 **2) Nobody245:**

 *** I'm not certain how certainly I can answer this, because I'm only up to Proto-Lana's arc so far, but I can at least tell you that the distinction between Lincoln and Sincoln WILL be made. What matters is whether the other Proto-Sisters are even willing to tell the difference.**

 *** Jophiel is the name of Lola's angel form, and Gusion is the demonic name of Proto-Lynn.**

 *** I checked the review, and once it updates, I'll respond to it there.**

 **3) GennaiArakida-XIV:**

 *** That's mild compared to what she can do at full power.**

 *** You don't understand! That tree was Maggie's go-to place to cry and whine about her sucky life, and now it's gone! DX**

 *** Thanks!**

 *** Be sure to do it as fast as you can, the progenitors can strike at a moment's notice.**

 *** Yay!**

 *** I'm blue, da ba dee da du da de da da dee da du da de da da dee da du da de...**

 *** Professional Matchmaker XD**

 *** You'll see soon.**

 *** A lot.**

 **4) Hatoralo: I wonder how long it'll be until your "This fic is flawed, but unique, so it's good" mentality starts growing thin. I'm sorry, but I am feeling worried about that, specially considering what happens in this chapter...**

 **5) animehero1000:**

 *** Yep, good thing the story's got some sick bullet-dodging skills.**

 *** His ego isn't huge, it's GODLY. XD**

 *** Remember, they're facing divine beings. Fallen divine beings, but still divine beings.**

 **6) Observant Guest:**

 *** There was such a hiatus in DBZ?**

 *** The Waiting Game's my favorite game!**

 *** Something interesting, yes...**

 *** Welp, here's the conclusion!**

 **7) js: No problem, and huh, that song does kinda fit...**

 **8) ChernoMan: Yes, and I'm excited you noticed.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 16: Crystal Clear Conclusion! Lola and Lana Versus Proto-Lola! Rise Forth, Angel Jophiel!**

* * *

 _Skies of Royal Woods..._

A team of three women clad in full armor-one being yellow, one being Green, and the last one being purple-flew across the skies of Royal Woods as they took a look around their surroundings. Far underneath them in the ocean, a man clad in red armor ran so fast, he was practically running across the water, his vision focused on what was right in front of him.

And this just so happened to give him a good look at two figures trying to stay afloat in the sea: Lynn Sr. and Rita.

The man extended his arms down, and grabbed the couple's hands, successfully taking them out of the water as he landed on the shore and dropped the pair there. And as the couple took the time to catch their breath, the guy took off his helmet and revealed himself to be Coach Pacowski, with the ladies flying down and doing the same to reveal themselves as Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Shrinivas, and Mrs. DiMartino.

"About time you guys arrived!" Rita exclaimed as she stood up. "We almost sunk to the bottom of the ocean!"

"We tried using our suits' rocket boots, but they didn't work for some reason," Lynn Sr. added. "Guess we forgot to charge them up this morning or something."

Suddenly, the ground shook and an explosion was heard, followed by everybody turning around and seeing a pink cloud slowly disperse.

"Whatever the case, we must get out of here!" Mrs. Johnson stated as Shrinivas and DiMartino went to and grabbed Lynn Sr. and Rita by the waist. "Shrinivas, DiMartino, follow me back to base and make sure not to drop those two! Pacowski, keep up the pace!"

"Don't you dare drop me, DiMartino," Rita hissed at the lady.

"Don't tempt me, Rita," DiMartino teasingly replied.

The team left, the flying and Pacowski running, as the fight between the twins and Proto-Lola raged on: Proto-Lola held her hand down the ground, slowing herself down as she went backwards, before stopping just as the twins reached her. Lana raised her arms, clasped them, and smacked the ground hard enough to make it sprout stalagmites that went closer and closer to the prototype.

Proto-Lola, however, just stood up and raised her left arm, which somehow caused an ice wall to sprout from the ground just in time to block the stalagmites, shattering both them and itself in the process. The proto-diva then used said arm to control the resulting ice shards, which started glowing pink, and she was about to throw them until Lola formed a diamond-shape with her arms, closed her eyes, and yelled:

"Diamond Flash!"

An intense flash of light happened, and Proto-Lola just closed her eyes, making sure to keep her arm up until the light died down. When she opened them again, however, a large boulder was heading straight towards her, prompting the prototype to leap up and dodge just before she was struck, only to be smacked down to the ground by the twins, who kicked her downwards.

However, it didn't take long before the smoke from the crash dispersed, revealing Proto-Lola standing up and dusting herself, no worse for the wear. And then the twins landed close to her side, and tried to attack again, only for their fists to hit something other than Proto-Lola: A pink, transparent shield surrounding her, seemingly made mostly of pentagons.

"Dang it, you can create shields too?!" Lola exclaimed, getting Proto-Lola's attention as Lana got ready to stomp the ground. "Is there anything else you're hiding under your sleeves?!"

"First of all, I don't even have sleeves," Proto-Lola answered as she narrowed her eyes. "And second, if I were to answer your question, you'd most likely start running away in sheer terror, just like the pathetic excuse for a parent your father used to do!"

When the sound of twins crashing through the tress stopped, Proto-Lola raised a couple rocks from the ground, cracked them open to reveal some sharp gem shards inside them, then got ready to throw said shards at the same direction the twins went flying.

And then Lana, with Lola clinging to her waist, burst from the ground and kicked Proto-Lola in the head hard enough to make her flinch, and drop the rocks. Sadly, though, Proto-Lola reacted just as quickly afterwards by elbowing Lana in the gut, then kicking her in the stomach hard enough to send her flying away, giving chase afterwards as a familiar figure watched the fight from the shadows: Carol.

"As much as I want to believe those two will be able to deal with Gremory, without some sort of ace up their sleeves they're fighting a war of attrition," Carol said worriedly. "Maybe I should step in so they have time to regroup and come up with another strategy?"

Carol took a step forward, but as soon as she tried to take another step, the girl flinched and backed away before she was struck by some thrown crystals, which started glowing upon hitting the ground before blowing up. Carol continued to run away as more crystals came down, and blew up soon afterwards, and this continued until Carol opened a portal on the ground and went through her, taking her to the top of a tree.

Once there, she took a look around, and soon enough, she found the source of the crystals: Leia, who had her arm covered in crystal and smoke coming out of it. The lovechild then slowly turned to face Carol, and uncovered her arm as the young woman folded her arms.

"So, being electrocuted wasn't enough to get you to go away, was it?" Carol narrowed her eyes and growled, "Go back to wherever you came from, Leia, you can't defeat me, and if you keep on trying, you're only going to get trashed."

Leia narrowed her eyes and leaned a bit closer, which allowed her to see Carol subtly catching her breath, alongside a couple of bruises.

"You're getting tired, aren't you?" Leia chuckled, while Carol flinched. "I can only guess that you've been using your portal powers way too much. It's common knowledge that the ability to create portals is useful, but it uses up a lot of stamina. I bet that, if I manage to stall for long enough, you'll be too tired to fight back."

Carol gritted her teeth, and Leia folded her arms. "And besides, I'm not facing you alone."

A shadowy figure appeared in the top of a nearby tree, and chuckled, making Carol turn to face her. The figure looked oddly similar to Lola, but with... rabbit ears? And then the figure came out of the shadows, and revealed herself to essentially be a rabbit version of Lola, who smirked as she turned her "fingernails" into crystal claws.

"I decided to give myself the liberty of taking one of "grandma's" bun-buns and convince her to help me," Leia added as she turned her fingernails into crystal claws as well. "Now, be honest Carol. Can you really take both me and grandma's toy at the same time!?"

Both Leia and the bun-bun leaped straight for Carol, who could only shout "Oh shit!" before being tackled by the two.

 _Meanwhile, at Maggie's house's backyard..._

"Carol's in danger!"

Everybody turned around as Leni stood up among the exhausted Loud sisters, and continued to speak, "She's facing off against some of Proto-Lola's servants while Lola and Lana are still fighting her!"

Leni turned to Lori, who stood up as well, "Lori, we have to go help her!"

"Leni's right. While we're at it, we should go help the twins fight the other Lola," Luna added, also getting up. "And we could also look for Lynn and Lincoln, since neither of them came back with us."

Most of the other sisters agreed to Luna's suggestion, while Leni looked at Lori with a worried look, while the eldest sister folded her arms and threw a look at Luna before turning away.

"Come on, Lori, don't give me the cold shoulder treatment! You have to admit I'm right!" Luna exclaimed, with Lori rolling her eyes at the statement. "We've been training with Carol this last week! We could help turn the tide of the fight! We could also get Lynn and Lincoln out of harm's way-!"

"Let's say that I feel comfortable with the idea of putting you on the battlefield again," Lori sternly spoke, her tone remaining serious as she turned back and asked, "Do you even have a plan this time around?"

Luna felt a chill go down her spine, feeling an authoritarian presence with Lori's behavior. Nonetheless, the rocker took a deep breath and said, "W-Well-"

"Because unless you have a plan that you're certain won't end up going wrong, sending any of you back out there is practically suicide!" Lori snapped as she walked towards Luna until they were face-to-face. "You may have forgotten your first encounter with the progenitors, so let me refresh your memory: They are powerful beyond comprehension! If we do even one thing wrong, we could all end up dead!"

"But we can't just stay here and do nothing either!" Luna retorted. "Our siblings are out there, facing off against those psychos alone! There has to be something we can do!"

Just then, a cloud came down from the skies with a familiar trio as its passengers: Clyde, Bobby, and Ronnie Anne, the last one still enveloped in her "overcharged state." Upon seeing this sight, Lori threw an "we'll continue this later" at Luna and went to check the trio.

"Oh, thank goodness you're back already!" Lori exclaimed as she and Leni ran to the trio. "Are you three okay?!"

"Yeah, we are," Bobby nodded, and jumped off the cloud. "I managed to catch those two before things got too crazy."

"Thanks for that, by the way, we really appreciate it," Clyde stated, before jumping out of the cloud and throwing an angry look at Ronnie Anne. "Right, Ronnie Anne?"

"Yeah, we totally appreciate you saving us in the nick of time, just when I was starting to get a bit haywire," Ronnie Anne deadpanly growled, before she flailed her arms up and down and yelled, "Oh wait, no I don't, because you ruined what was possibly my only chance to get answers!"

"Ronnie Anne, why are you so literally angry?" Lori asked as she folded her arms. "And what do you mean by your only chance to get answers?"

The tomboy took a couple deep breaths, then jumped off the cloud, with her overcharged form ending as soon as she hit the ground, which confused some of the sisters.

"Huh, Ronnie's body is back to normal when she hit the ground, that's quite shocking," Luan quipped, though she could only get a chuckle out before she asked, "But seriously, though, why did that happen?"

"When electricity hits the ground, it, like, goes inside said ground and remains there until something takes it out," Leni explained, briefly turning to face her sisters as she added, "In other words Ronnie Anne got grounded."

Luna and Luan exchanged confused looks, with Luan trying to hold back her laughter to boot, as Ronnie Anne promptly explained, "It's... my cousin, Carlota. She's working for the enemy as a masked jerk!"

"Wait a minute, masked?" Luna repeated. "Did her mask have a diamond-shaped visor in it?"

Ronnie nodded. "Yeah, I think it had that."

"But that would mean that Carlota was one of the masked guys that attacked us back when we first started training!" Luna realized, standing up as she thought about it. "Why do the pink ones always turn out to be smokin' hot?"

"Luna, not now, please!" Leni growled at the rocker, before turning back to the tomboy. "Anyway, can you continue, Ronnie Anne?"

"The place started coming down on us right after I found out, and as we fell, I started thinking about what this meant," Ronnie looked at the ground, and put her hands on her pockets. "I talked with her for a bit, I tried to get her to tell me why she was working with the progenitors, but she wouldn't tell me anything. So I got mad, I threw lighting bolts at them, and Bobby rescued me and Nerd-O over there afterwards."

"I tried to get her to stop, but she wouldn't listen, either," Clyde added as he walked closer to the girl. "And also, Ronnie Anne, maybe your cousin didn't tell you anything because whatever she's hiding, it might be for the best. Sometimes, the truth is best kept secret."

Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow. "How would you know?"

Clyde adjusted his glasses. "Your cousin wouldn't be the first person to have secrets they'd rather keep to themselves."

"Okay, Ronnie, Clyde, and Bobby are here, so that only leaves Lynn, Lincoln, and the twins still out there," Luna remarked, getting Lori's attention once more. "And I'm going to say this again: We should go back and help them with their fight against-"

"Luna, would you consider yourself the strongest of our sisters right now?" Lori asked sternly with an authoritarian tone.

"Not counting you or Leni? Then I guess so, yeah," the rocker folded her arms and raised an eybrow. "But why do you ask?"

"Since you're being so insistent about how we need to go help the twins and Lincoln, you need to prove you're strong enough to hold your own in case things go south," the eldest sister explained. "Now, in battle it would make more sense for you to hit Leni since she's weaker than me, but since we aren't nobody would hurt her without feeling bad and she doesn't like to hurt anybody. So, instead, hit me with the hardest punch you got."

"That's it?" Luna asked with a chuckle. "Well then-"

Suddenly, Lori grabbed Luna by her shirt and pulled her towards her. "Now let me repeat myself: I don't want you to hold back, I don't want you to only use a part of your strength, I want you to use all of it!"

Lori pushed Luna back, and, feeling enraged by how she was grabbed, the rocker formed a fist and punched Lori in the face, causing the other sisters to gasp... except for Leni, who just looked worried.

"Ouchie, that literally," Lori mockingly whined, before slowly turning back to face the rocker and say, with a stern tone, "Did nothing at all."

Luna flinched and lowered her arm, prompting Lori to clench a fist. "Now, in comparison, this is a punch from me, while barely even trying."

Lori punched Luna right in the face, and not only was the rocker sent crashing straight into the wall of Maggie's house, but at least a tooth flew off and hit the ground as the other sisters went to check if Luna was alright. As for Leni, she grabbed the tooth that flew off, and shot a look of disapproval at Lori, who lowered her arm afterwards.

"Okay, if that doesn't convince you to stay here and not go out there again, I don't know what will," Lori stated as she walked to Bobby's cloud. "Leni and I have to go help Carol with whatever's tying her her. We'll try to come back as soon as possible, so don't get in trouble until then, okay?"

The sisters nodded, and Leni glanced back at the rocker as she stood up, rubbing her struck cheek. With that done, Leni turned back to Lori, sat on the cloud, and it flew off into the distance

"Dang, Lori creamed Rock-O!" Ronnie exclaimed before turning to her brother. "Were you ever on the receiving end of one of those, Bobby?"

Bobby sighed and put a hand on Ronnie's shoulder. "That's not a question I can answer right now. Mostly because we need to go home."

"Oh man, my parents are gonna freak out!" Clyde exclaimed, suddenly realizing what that meant. "They probably think that I was still inside the building when it collapsed, and that I probably got hurt or worse!"

Clyde turned to the sisters. "What time is it?"

Luan looked up and sheepishly answered, "Evening... time?"

"Yeah, they've probably put at least a 100 missing posters or something," Clyde scratched his chin. "I need to go back home before they start a search party or something!"

"Wow, sounds like your parents are a pain," Ronnie closed her eyes and shook her head. "My mom has her moments, but I don't think I could stand having overprotective parents like yours. Sucks to be you, Nerd-O."

Clyde clenched his fists and snapped, "Well at least _both_ my parents are still around!"

Ronnie's mood instantly turned furious. "What did you say?"

"Stop it you two! We don't need to get into any more trouble!" Bobby exclaimed, getting in between the pair's argument. "Look, we'll all go back home, check in with our parents, and leave it to the Louds to handle the fight. Okay?"

The pair glanced at the guy, then back at each other, and they looked away and nodded as Bobby called a cloud big enough to hold the trio again. However, just as they got ready to get on top of it, Luna caught their attention.

"Sorry to ask, but could you give us a lift?" Luna asked as she wobbled her way to Bobby. "We also have to go back home and it isn't close."

Bobby looked back at the cloud, then back at the pleading sisters, and finally at the dark-skinned geek and his sister, who simply shrugged uncertainly. He sighed, and expanded the cloud so it could hold everybody as he said:

"Fine, but just this once."

 _Meanwhile, back with Lindsey and Lincoln..._

The bandaged redhead waved her hand in front of Lincoln's face... while the boy was unconscious. She then tried to push him, put a wet finger in his ear, and other things that would get a normal person to wake up, but nothing seemed to work.

"Dang, Lola's counterpart must've knocked him out good, he's not waking up no matter what I do to him!" Lindsey remarked, and then she checked his pulse, and heard his heart beat a couple times. "He still has a heartbeat, though, so he's definitely still alive..."

The redheaded diva got up, and then noticed a red liquid coming down from Lincoln's forehead. Or at least, the liquid looked red. "And he's bleeding too?"

Lindsey looked to her left and right, and once she verified there was nobody nearby, she took off some of her bandages-at least enough to show her mouth and chin-and wrapped them around Lincoln's forehead.

"Okay, now that he's bandaged, time to think of another way to wake him up!" Lindsey exclaimed, and she scratched her chin as she thought about what else she could try, and also having no idea that some glowing pink object was heading her way. "Maybe I could pull a "sleeping beauty" and wake him up with a kiss? But then again, he's not really my type... and Winston would get on my case if he-"

Suddenly, Lindsey heard something, or perhaps even someone, approaching, and she leaped out of the way just before three flashes of light, two pink and one blue, flew by the scene so fast, they practically sent Lincoln and Lindsey flying off into some debris just by passing by.

"What the heck was that?!" Lindsey exclaimed as she stood up and dusted herself. "Was that the twins fighting the other Lola?!"

Yes, yes that was it.

Proto-Lola hovered in the middle of the fight, easily blocking most of Lola and Lana's attacks with just her hands. Then, in the split moment she blocked their attacks with a hand and a kick, Proto-Lola threw a smug look at Lana and savored the shocked look on the plumber's face before she sent her flying away a couple feet with a single kick.

Once Lana regained her balance, she landed on the ground and stomped it, sending a bunch of stalactites towards the fighting Lolas. She then stomped it again to make the stalactites surround the duo, then expand, trapping them both inside.

Lana then took jumped as high as she could, and spun around as she started falling down towards the Lola fight. Then, as soon as Lola noticed Lana was about to hit them, she formed a diamond shape with her arms and shouted:

"Diamond Flash!"

Proto-Lola closed her eyes just before the bright light went off, and immediately tried to attack. However, she wound up hitting nothing, for Lola was nowhere to be seen once the proto-diva opened her eyes, and she could barely process what this meant before Lana kicked her hard enough to send her falling face-first on the ground.

Lana jumped off the prototype and, for extra good measure, she motioned her hands to form a pair of giant rock arms to hold Proto-Lola in place. And she kept her motion as she reunited with Lola.

"That worked better than expected," Lola remarked, only to quickly take notice of Lana's arms. "Why are you keeping your arms like that?"

"I haven't quite learned how to get the arms to stay without keeping these gestures, so I need to stay like this or your counterpart will be free," Lana sheepishly answered. "Anyway, ready to execute your plan?"

Lola covered her left arm in crystal. "We can give it a shot, at least. However-"

Suddenly, the ground shook, and the duo turned around to see Proto-Lola slowly look back at them as the rocky arms were slowly turned into crystal. She then opened her eyes fully and powered up, surrounding herself in a pink aura as the crystal arms shattered into several hundred pieces, which were sent straight towards the twins.

Lana immediately motioned for a rock wall to get up, and the wall protected the twins from some of the incoming crystals, with the remaining flying everywhere else until they either cracked into dust, or struck some nearby trees.

Needless to say, this sight completely erased Lola's confidence in an instant.

"Okay, so she got out, I totally forgot she could do that," Lana turned to her worried sister and said, "Now don't freak out, Lola, remember that you can still use her own tactics against her."

The diva took a deep breath and nodded in agreement. Lana stopped her motions and the rock wall crumbled afterwards, revealing Proto-Lola was walking towards the twins with a stern look.

"I'm gonna be perfectly honest with you, neither of you are as much of a disappointment as I thought you would be," Proto-Lola remarked, flashing a little smirk. "I figured you would throw a couple punches, find out just how outmatched you really are, then run away as I finished the job with you. But instead, you've lived up to this point."

The twins got up and took deep breaths as Proto-Lola slowly approached. Then, as she spoke, Lola put a hand behind her back and charged some energy.

"Granted, your performance here is far more underwhelming than your performance at the fall of the original reality, but I'll give you points for trying. That being said, I just can't forgive how you decided to remain in Lincoln's side. I mean, he has no more power over you, he doesn't control you like he once did. You could join together and gang up on him while he's still powerless to do anything!"

"I think you're forgetting one little thing," Lana smirked. "Right now, you're the one trying to kill us!"

Lana turned to her twin. "Now, Lola!"

Though briefly startled by the call, Lola quickly regained her composure and aimed her crystal arm at her counterpart before yelling:

"Diamond Machine Gun!"

Lana stepped out of the way and from her crystal palm Lola shot several diamond-shaped energy blasts at Proto-Lola, who flinched before running off to the side, running away from the energy blasts as Lola chased after her, keeping her aim focused on the prototype as she did. As for Lana? She went ahead, hiding in the shadows.

And then, the energy blasts briefly stopped, making Proto-Lola think it was time to attack. However, once she turned around, she saw Lola charging an energy beam while a diamond-shaped mirror stood in front of her. And then, Lola yelled:

"Diamond Laser!"

An energy beam came out of her palm, which was amplified by the diamond mirror. Proto-Lola stood her ground and summoned a barrier with hexagons in it, protecting her from the beam.

Then, as the beam slowly died down, Lola charged a couple energy spheres and threw them in the air, before forming another diamond-shaped energy blast. She aimed it at the spheres, and threw it at them, with the blast colliding with one of them as she shouted:

"Diamond Rain!"

One exploding sphere lead to more spheres exploding, and the shards of the spheres rained down on top of Proto-Lola, forcing her to keep up her barrier... though even this wasn't enough, since the barrier was slightly cracked by the impacts, with some of the shards even piercing the barrier.

However, the rain soon stopped, and Proto-Lola undid her barrier, sporting a small smile of pride as the shards hit the ground and Lana came out of hiding at the other side of her.

"Huh, so now you know some moves, Jophiel," Proto-Lola remarked as she midly clapped. "Did you, by any chance, see me do those same moves before?"

"Yeah, I did," Lola stated as she morphed her left arm into a sword. "And guess what? I'm going to use them as much as I can against you!"

Lola and Lana leapeed straight for Proto-Lola, who simply stood in place and chuckled.

"There's just one problem, Hayyel and Jophiel..."

Proto-Lola raised her arms, which were now covered in crystal, and smirked as Lola and Lana's attacks came into contact with the diamond.

"You're fighting someone with _eons_ of experience!"

Then, using her own arms as clubs, Proto-Lola smacked Lola and Lana straight across some trees until they crashed in a large boulder. And as the smoke cloud cleared, Proto-Lola uncovered her arms and took the chance to calm down and recover her strengths.

Once there, the twins got up and dusted themselves before Lana asked, "Lola, do you think now we should get ready to do your plan?"

Lola remained silent, prompting Lana to ask, "Lola?"

And then the diva answered, "I'm not so sure my plan's going to work anymore."

"What?!" the mechanic tomboy grabbed Lola's shoulders. "What are you talking about?!"

"Lana, I already tried the moves she used, you're using the moves you know, and it doesn't look like we're doing that much damage to her!" Lola twiddled her fingers. "If my plan doesn't convince her to leave us alone, we're going to die! And dying is one of the last things I want to do!"

Lola looked at the ground somberly. "Specially if you die as well, Lana..."

The plumber smiled and brushed the diva's hair. "We'll be fine, Lola. But, if it makes you feel better, the situation's not as hopeless as you think it is."

"What are you talking about?" Lola raised an eyebrow. "My copycat is way stronger alone than we are together!"

"Lola, let me tell you something Carol told me while we were training. The stronger someone is compared to their enemies, the more likely they are to play with them and not take the fight seriously," Lana explained, but this only made her twin tilt her head in confusion. "Because Proto-Lola is so powerful, she isn't going all out. We can use that to our advantage!"

Lola frowned. "How?"

"Well, I have an idea," Lana said, only to feel something coming towards the duo. "But first, look out!"

Lana grabbed Lola, lifted her bridal carry-style, and leaped before they were struck by another fight passing by. This was the fight between Leia, Proto-Lola's Bun-Bun, and Carol, the three being enveloped in a pink-light blue-turquoise aura as they clashed punches and kicks. And although Carol managed to block the incoming attacks, it wasn't long before she was caught off-guard by Leia shouting:

"Diamond Flash!"

A bright light happened and stunned and blinded Carol long enough to let the Bun-Bun slash at the girl with her crystal claws. She managed to get a couple of hits in, but as soon as Carol regained her sight, she grabbed one of the bun-bun's arms and swung her for a moment before a crystal fell and landed on her shoulder.

Keeping her grip on the bun-bun, Carol looked up and saw Leia aim several falling crystals at Carol, basically a "Diamond Rain" of her own. Without hesitation, Carol dodged the incoming crystals until they stopped raining, until she saw them start glowing.

Suddenly, Bun-Bun regained her composure and not only freed herself from Carol's grasp, but kicked her right into the glowing crystals, who blew up mere seconds afterwards.

Carol, of course, survived the explosion, but as soon as she hit the ground, Leia and Bun-Bun walked out of the explosion and got ready to attack again.

"You know, for a Cross-Caste, you seriously don't live up to your caste's reputation," Leia mockingly remarked as she cracked her knuckles. "But oh well, I guess the only thing left to do is to kill you before you recover your strength."

"Listen, Leia, there's no point in doing any of this!" Carol exclaimed as the lovechild regained her composure. "We both know there's only one enemy we need to worry about: And that's Lincoln!"

"No, my dad's not an enemy! He's my dad, and he loves me!" Leia snapped, flailing her arms up and down. "He's always loved me! In fact, he's been the only one who's ever loved me, so I know that you're just spitting garbage!"

Leia suddenly paused. "He... wouldn't..."

Barely a couple seconds later, Leia went back to being angry and she turned her fingernails into crystal claws. "And after what you did to my fellow lovechildren, I'd never put my trust in you again! Bun-Bun and I will take you down, right here, right-"

Suddenly, both the lovechild and the bun-bun were struck by a large tree that was being used as a club. Carol turned around and saw who used the club: It was Leni, who threw the tree away before running off to Carol's side.

"Carol, are you okay?!" Leni helped the girl get up. "Geez, you look like you got a beating. Did you use your portal powers too much again?"

And as the duo spoke, Leia and Bun-Bun recovered, got up, and felt chills go down their spines once they spotted Leni.

"Oh crap, not her! Anybody but her!" Leia shrieked before turning to the rabbit girl. "That's it, Bun-Bun, we're getting the heck out of here! Fighting that psycho just isn't worth it!"

Bun-Bun nodded without hesitation, and using the same "crystal-teleportation" technique Leia used, the pair vanished from the battlefield as soon as they could. Not that it mattered, since Carol and Leni were too busy with their talk to notice their escape.

"Anyhow, thanks for helping me deal with those two," Carol remarked, only to soon notice a particular absence. "By the way, where's Lori? I thought you two were almost always together."

"She's, like, back at the house, making sure Lisa and Lily are okay," Leni took a deep breath. "And, as much as I hate to say it, we have to go back there too."

"What?! But the fight's nowhere near over!" Carol exclaimed before pointing at the ensuing pink explosion clouds in the distance. "As we speak, the twins are getting their butts kicked by Proto-Lola! Specially Lola, since she was stupid enough to focus on training for the beauty pageant rather than training to learn how to fight back!"

Leni gave Carol a worried look, and the girl slowly calmed down by catching her breath as the ditzy fashion designer explained:

"Carol, I know you're afraid that your students are in dangers, and that you're really angry about Lola choosing to train for the beauty pageant instead, and I don't blame you-"

"I know, right?!" Carol exclaimed, getting agitated once more. "I mean, literally the other day, she suffered a horrible defeat from the progenitors! She knew first and foremost how it would go down if she didn't train, and she still chose to prepare for the pageant-!"

"But Lola's like that! The years before the knowing the truth of this reality, she spent building herself as, like, someone who totes lives for beauty pageants!" Leni snapped in return, making sure to calm down before adding, "Even with some growth she had before then, beauty pageants were the first thing that came to mind with her."

Now understanding what this meant, Carol somberly looked at the ground, and Leni gently caressed her hair as she continued:

"Besides, you know the only other thing we're allowed to do besides training them, is to watch from the shadows and hope everything goes well. That's all we can do, Carol, if we try to anything more than that... they'll stop us... and they'll be sure to punish us as well."

"...Okay," Carol sighed. "Let's go back home."

Seeing the girl was too tired to create any portals, Leni grabbed Carol and carried her bridal carry style before she flew back home as fast as she could. And this supposedly left the twins alone to deal with Proto-Lola on their own...

Just as the proto-diva leaped for the twins, however, she stopped, turned around, then flew away just before a large stream of fire engulfed her, with the twins watching in surprise as it happened. And then the source of the fire arrived, or more accurately flew, into view.

It was Lynn, with a pair of wings behind her back, made entirely on fire. Close to her were the Biker Trio, who followed her on foot.

"Are you two alright?" Lynn asked as the biker trio went to tend the twins' wounds. "I remember Lola's crazy knockoff was still around, and I wanted offer a helping hand. If you want, that is."

"Lynn, at this point, we need all the help we can get!" Lola exclaimed. "Of course we'll accept the help!"

"But still, how did you get those wings? Also is your foot okay?" Lana asked.

"Well, that's kind of a funny story," Lynn scratched the back of her head and sheepishly smiled as she answered, "You see, I was saved by a girl with fire wings and a redheaded nerd prick. The girl with the fire wings looked like me! And so I got a crazy idea: Girl that looks like me, plus fire wings; maybe I can have fire wings too. So I channeled my energy, and boom, fire wings! And yeah flying means I don't have to use my foot right now."

"And why are those girls following you?" Lola asked, giving the biker trio the pointer finger.

"Oh, well, they've been with me since the building fell apart just in case I got hurt again," Lynn explained before turning to the trio. "But I think I'll be fine now. You three should get out of here and go somewhere safe as soon as possible."

"Should we go look for Sweet Feet?" Mindy asked, causing Lynn to stiff a laugh.

"N-No, don't do that, wherever he is, it's probably too dangerous to go see him right now," Lynn answered. "Just go somewhere safe and stay there 'till things calm down, okay?"

The trio exchanged unsure looks, then nodded at Lynn with worried smiles before they rode off out of the battlefield.

Suddenly, a diamond-shaped energy blast was thrown at the trio, and they narrowly dodged it as Proto-Lola returned into view.

"You have some guts to interrupt our fight, Camael," Proto-Lola remarked as she charged both her palms with pink energy. "Don't think that I'll give you the privilege of ignoring me!"

Proto-Lola then swung her arms as fast as she could, launching diamond blast after diamond blast at the trio, forcing them to retreat back into the forest and hide in some bushes, with Lynn taking out her wings in the process.

"Wow, she really loves to be the center of attention, just like the real deal," Lynn chuckled before turning to a stern Lana. "Speaking of which, why haven't you beaten her yet, Lana? Lola I understand, because she didn't train with us, but you did!"

"A few sessions for a couple of days isn't enough to beat her, Carol said as much!" Lana explained. "I was stalling for time until Lola was ready to do her plan, but she doesn't think it will work now!"

Lynn turned to look at the diva, and she snapped, with evident fear in her tone, "We trapped her, and she got out of it. I threw attack after attack at her, and she dodged and blocked them all!"

Lola glanced at her crystal arm, and then at the ground with a somber look. "My plan's so risky I can only do it once, I can't try it again. If I miss, we're practically dead meat!"

Seeing how scared the diva was, Lynn smiled and turned to Lana, "That's it, then. Lana, I hope you still have some tricks up your sleeves, 'cause we're gonna need to pull out all stops if we wanna buy Lola enough time!"

"I already got that covered," Lana smiled and got up. "In fact, there's something I've been keeping hidden for a while, and now the time might be right to break it out."

The twins exchanged a knowing look, and Lana and Lynn left the hiding spot and returned to face off against Proto-Lola, who stood close to the lake as Lynn sprouted her fire wings again and Lana cracked her knuckles.

"You wanna get to Lola?!" Lynn shouted. "Then you're gonna have to get past us!"

Proto-Lola just rolled her eyes and made the "come at me" gesture. And this being Lynn's only weakness, the jock flew towards Proto-Lola and smirked before throwing a fire-enveloped punch at her...

Only for the prototype to leap up, and land on the water that, as soon as she touched with her hands, turned into ice platforms. And of course, Lynn simply formed some fireballs and threw them at the prototype, who cartwheeled her way back to dodge the fireballs, making ice platform after ice platform in the process.

Lana followed close nearby by raising the rocks from underwater and having them stay up to form a path. And once both Lynn and Lana were close enough, Proto-Lola took a big leap, and then landed right in tthe middle of the lake, somehow forming a giant open field that resembled a snowflake. It even had an extra path that lead back to the shore, even!

"Cool," Lynn uttered in awe.

"Lynn!" Lana yelled at the jock.

"The bad kind of cool!" The jock quickly corrected herself. "B-But anyway, shouldn't you show what trick you got under your sleeve right now?"

Once she stepped on the arena, Lana cracked her knuckles again before focusing her energy, and silently powering up. The arena started to shake a bit, and tiny pebbles even came out of the water and levitated up in the air until Lana finished powering up, causing them to fall back into the water.

For the most part, Lana hadn't changed that much: The only real notable differences was that her eyes had black sclera and blue pupils, and that Lana was enveloped in a dark blue aura.

The prototype diva didn't seem impressed.

"Well, you're starting to knock on the door of your true power, so what?" Proto-Lola shook her head and shrugged. "I've had eons to perfect my abilities and know exactly what I need to do in order to defeat you. Meanwhile, you didn't even get half a week of progress on your training, do you honestly think you can beat me in this state?"

"It's worth the shot!" Lana cracked her knuckles. "And besides, it's two versus one! I'm sure that Lynn and I can pull something off!"

"Oh, really? Is that what you think?" Proto-Lola mockingly chuckled. "In that case, how about I crank it up a little notch?!"

Proto-Lola cracked her knuckles and spread her arms wide as she slowly became surrounded by a pink aura. Not only that, but the water beneath the ice started to shake, soon followed by the nearby earth doing the same.

The aura intensified, and Proto-Lola closed her eyes as the shaking further intensified. So much so, that even Lola briefly left her hiding spot and went to check what was going on.

And as soon as she caught a glimpse of that, Proto-Lola opened her eyes and her aura practically blew up, sending Lola flying right back into hiding, while Lynn and Lana barely avoided the same fate.

Once the power up finished, Proto-Lola was now enveloped in a smaller, glowing aura with sparkles, and her eyes had swapped colors: Her sclera was black, while her diamond-shaped pupils were pink.

"Really? A massive hyping just for that?!" Lynn exclaimed, upset at the resulting form. "How's that any different from your normal form?!"

"If you wish to know, my previous look is just me while barely using any of my power. I'm currently at 5% of my full power," Proto-Lola boasted with a smug smirk. "If you and Camael together can give me trouble at 1%, then 5% should be enough to wipe that cocky attitude of yours away!"

"Wait, you were at 1% before?!" Lana exclaimed in disbelief.

"I said that more as an estimation rather than actual fact," Proto-Lola chuckled. "But sure, let's go with that!"

Not being someone to let such an arbitrary statement intimidate her, Lynn yelled and flew forth towards Proto-Lola, who blocked the incoming punch with one hand. She then blocked an incoming kick, then spun around for a while before throwing the jock up in the air.

In the moments between the throw and Lynn recovering her composure, Proto-Lola raised a pair of water arms and then crystallized them into ice just as they caught and trapped Lynn, leaving her stunned.

Just as Proto-Lola smirked, though, Lana took the chance to lift a large boulder at the prototype, who just swayed her hair to her right before she shot an energy blast at the boulder, shattering it to pieces... which revealed Lana right at the other side, just about to throw a punch with her earth-encased arm.

Proto-Lola gasped, and she took the punch right to the face, making her lose control over the ice arms, weakening them just enough to allow Lynn to break free, and then shoot fireballs out of her mouth straight at Proto-Lola who failed to block them in time.

The prototype fell down, and Lana and Lynn took the chance to return to the actual ground as Proto-Lola slid down the snowflake-like arena, which created an ice wall at an end just before the proto-diva fell down said end.

"Spitting out fireballs?" Lana asked Lynn, who rubbed her neck and coughed a bit. "How did you come up with that one?"

"I remembered one of Lincoln's games had a boss that could do that, so I thought I would take a shot at it," Lynn answered, her voice souding lower in volume and more hoarse in general. "It kinda messed up my voice, but it was worth it. By the way, that trick you did was also pretty cool, Lana."

Lana smiled. "Well, I can't really take all the credit, you did good too."

And as the duo continued to talk, Proto-Lola slowly got up and caught her breath. Having gotten one punch and several fireballs to the face, she was feeling rather ticked off at the moment. However, when she felt a little pain on the right side of her face, she formed an ice mirror, and looked at her face.

What she found was that the right side of her face was burned, with her eye unable to get any bigger than a squint to boot. Not only that, but as hard as she tried to heal herself, the burned face remained, and it looked like it was gonna stay like that for a while...

"And letting yourself get captured by her ice arms?" Lana remarked, seemingly oblivious to the incoming danger. "You even had me going for a minute!"

"Y-Yeah! That's what happened!" Lynn nervously answered. "I, uh, totally let her do that, it was part of my plan all along, hehehe!"

Just then, Proto-Lola let out a titanic roar before she flew straight for the duo, screaming bloody murder as she grabbed Lynn and Lana by the head, then pinned them to the floor before flying back to the area of the building, right where the rest of the people still were.

Once there, Proto-Lola lifted Lana and Lynn up, and threw them straight into the ground before she let out another ear-shattering roar, sending all other people besides Lana and Lynn flying away, with the duo earning quite a beating afterwards.

Part of this beating included grabbing Lynn by her ponytail and slamming her left and right on the floor repeatedly, with each smack causing a shockwave so hard, it prevented Lana from going to Lynn's aid. And with one final smack, Proto-Lola released Lynn and walked away, but not before hissing at the jock's direction:

"Puny loser!"

And so, Lynn's weakling button was pushed.

The jock got up with one foot, and her muscular mass started rapidly growing as she yelled at the top of her lungs:

"Did you just call me loser!?"

Suddenly, Lynn became as muscular as a bodybuilder, and her eyes turned completely red, achieving her "bersoreker" form from before. Proto-Lola was so unimpressed by this, however, she didn't even stop to look at Lynn as the muscular rage-empowered athlete leaped for an attack. Or a grab, specifically, since she managed to unknowingly snatch Proto-Lola's crown.

However, Proto-Lola, having grown particularly sick of the jock, covered her fist in crystal and then punched Lynn so hard, not only was she knocked out in general, but she was knocked out of her "bersoreker" form. And as the jock was sent crashing through a tree straight to Lola's hideout, Proto-Lola turned back to Lana and stated, with a demented smile:

"You're next!"

Back with Lynn and Lola, the diva came out of hiding and paced back and forth, having grown even more unsure about the situation after Lynn's crash landing.

"Things went bad to worse, and now they've gone from worse to... worse-ier! The other me went nuts, Lynn is out cold, Lana's in mortal danger, and I'm here panicking instead of trying to figure a way to fix all of this!" Lola exclaimed, pulling her hair as she added, "What am I supposed to do now!?"

Suddenly, the girl heard a peculiar sound. It sounded like something shining nearby. So she turned around, and took a quick look around before she spotted Proto-Lola's Crown on Lynn's hand.

"The Gremorian Crown of Beauty! Or, I guess I should just call it Proto-Me's Crown for short," Lola remarked as she took the Crown. "So, Lynn managed to snatch it before she was sent flying huh? I'll be sure to thank her when I get the chance, but right now... maybe I could use this to figure out how to win this thing..."

Lola grabbed the crown, and with a lot of hesitation, she took a deep breath and slowly put the crown on the head. And in mere instants, her eyes completely glew pink as a vision went right through her eyes:

 _A long time ago, in the Fall of the Original Reality..._

Through the eyes of her prototype counterpart, Lola watched as Proto-Lola caught her breath in the middle of what seemed like a crystallized landscape, while surrounded by what seemed to be the unconscious bodies of familiar people: Winston, Skippy, Lindsey Sweetwater, and even a freaking Mr. Universe! The prototype then looked up to see the person right in front of her, the one responsible for the distorted scene.

It was Lola, with black sclera and pink diamond-shaped pupils, and a pair of diamond-shaped crystal wings.

"I know you're in there, my child. I know you're not doing this by your own will!" Proto-Lola exclaimed at the silent diva. "You have to fight it! I know your father's using all of his powers, but he'll only control you as long as you let him! You have to defy him as hard as you can!"

The silent diva aimed her left hand at the proto-diva and charged some energy.

Proto-Lola lowered her head, her hair obscuring her eyes as she said, "So, there's no other way around this?"

An energy blast was shot at Proto-Lola, but as soon as the smoke dispersed, Lola was surrounded by a pink light as little orbs came out of her body... and towards the cloud. And soon afterwards, the cloud dispersed enough to show Proto-Lola, also surrounded by a pink light, and with the orbs-also coming from all locations-going towards her and into her body.

"Children of Gremory, 'tis I, your eternal mother!" Proto-Lola exclaimed as she clenched her fist. "I ask you... to lend me your power, so I can at least show these invaders, that we won't go down so easily!"

Finally, Proto-Lola focused all of said energy into her clenched fist, and threw a punch as she yelled at the top of her lungs:

"Eat this!"

And as soon as the powered fist punched Lola right in the face, the vision ended...

 _Back at the present..._

"I know what to do now!" Lola exclaimed as soon as she hit the moment of eureka. "But if I want this to work, I need to tell Lana about it, but how?"

The diva pondered for a moment, and snapped her fingers once she got an idea: "I'll just use twin telepathy to tell her about it!"

Lola put her index fingers on her forehead, and tried to concentrate her energy to communicate telepathically with Lana. However, she soon came upon a big problem:

"Wait, I don't know how to use telepathy!"

Another sudden clash sent the diva back into the bushes. Luckily, the crown didn't fall off her head, for some reason. As she came out of the bush, and watched Lana's intensifying fight with Proto-Lola, it reminded the diva that she couldn't waste any more time.

"Well, telepathy's not gonna work," Lola sat on the ground and clasped her hands. "Guess I'll just have to wing it and hope for the best."

The diva closed her eyes, and with her utmost intent, she prayed:

" _Children of Gre... of Jophiel, 'tis I, your e... mother! I ask you... I beg you... to lend me your power, so I can finally earn a victory against my counterpart! Lend me your power, so I can drive Gremory right back to wherever she came from! Help me defend this whole world!_ "

And so, with her desperate plead of help, Lola slowly levitated up as she was surrounded by a pink glow. It took her a moment to notice, but once she realized this, she clutched her chest and calmed before she noticed a rather fascinating sight: The energy of all people from the Lola caste, nearby and from afar, came towards the diva in the form of pink spheres.

" _It's working!_ " Lola mentally chirped.

 _Meanwhile, at the organization..._

Lynn checked some analysis results and Rita scratched her head as she wrote something down on a computer, only to notice she was surrounded by a pink glow afterwards. Although Lynn Sr. did notice.

"Rita, you're glowing pink!" he exclaimed.

Rita looked at herself, and next thing the parents knew, they were in a room with the Mrs. trio and Greg.

"And now I'm glowing pink!" Rita screamed, with the Mrs. trio trying to ignore her as hard as possible. "What's that supposed to mean!?"

"Your daughter's asking for your help."

The Loud parents turned to look at Greg, who glew in a similar manner and had his arms up.

"She'll get your energy in general, but she'll get more if you raise your arms," the man explained sternly. "Raise your arms too if you want her to win once and for all!"

Rita raised an eyebrow. "How's that supposed to-"

Lynn Sr. then struck Rita with his secret weapon: The tickles! The woman laughed out loud as she put her arms up, sending more energy.

 _And then, at the Casagrande Residence..._

At Carlota's bedroom, the girl was looking at a black and gold outfit that looked it could be Ronnie Anne's size. As she folded it and put it back in her closet, she couldn't help but audibly muster to herself, "I wonder if I'll be able to get Ronnie's trust again."

And then she was surrounded by the pink aura, and she seemed surprised by it, before she narrowed her eyes in annoyance.

" _Of course, why did I act so naive? I've been Gremory's slave long enough to know she'd screw me over even when I'm not working,_ " Carlota thought, before raising her arms. " _Well, I might as well help her daughter kick her butt once and for all._ "

And then a familiar face entered her room, Frida Puga Casagrande, her mother.

"Carlota, you got any dirty clothes to clean-" the woman remarked, only to freak out when she saw the glowing young woman. "What's going on with you?!"

"My boss and her daughter have a bit of an argument going on, so much so the daughter's trying to win it with the power of her entire caste," Carlota casually explained. "So, I'm gonna help her try not to get her butt kicked."

Frida raised an eyebrow. "But, I thought you pledged loyalty to that Gremory in exchange for Ronnie's safety?"

"I thought that too... but, as it turns out, she cares so little about me she may not even process what I'm doing as a betrayal," Carlota answered, putting a little smirk as she added, "After all, if she wants a good fight, I might as well help her daughter be less of a disappointment, right?"

 _At the McBride residence..._

Penelope rested at the living room, playing her banjo as she presumably waited for Clyde to arrive. And then she started glowing pink.

"Well, this is very interesting," Penelope chuckled, stopped playing the banjo, and raised both her arms. "That little diva Loud is gonna get quite a surprise when she discovers who decided to help her."

 _Back with Lindsey's relatives..._

The reporter known as Catherine Sweetwater sat on a bench, looking quite depressed as her camera crew were waiting for her to regain enough of her energy to go back to...wherever they worked.

In that moment, a certain kid walked towards the lady: Winston. He sat next to the woman, and hugged his arm.

"I know how you feel, Aunt Catherine, I wish we knew if Lindsey was safe as well," Winston said mere moments before he started glowing pink. "But look at the bright side-"

Of course, Catherine had to state the obvious once she noticed: "Winston, you're glowing pink."

"...Well, when I said "look at the bright side" I didn't mean this!" Winston said as he looked at himself. "This might have something to do with Lola saying she needs to gather energy from people of her caste or something.

With that statement, an idea popped up in Catherine' head, so she grabbed Winston's shoulders, leaned closer 'till they were face-to-face, and stated:

"Winston, hear me clearly, 'cause I'm only going to say this once: Give as much energy as you can to Lola Loud! For Lindsey's sake!"

The boy silently nodded, separated from the woman, and raised his arms to finally do something other than being there.

 _Finally, with Lindsey and Lincoln..._

The boy slowly woke up and got up, dusting himself as he took a quick look at his surroundings. From what he could see, several pink energy spheres were going towards a flying person in the sky, the person in question being Lola.

And when he turned around, he noticed Lindsey, glowing pink and with both her arms raised.

"Well, geez, looks like I was out cold for a while," Lincoln remarked, before turning to Lindsey. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Your sisters, some of them anyway, have been fighting against the other Lola for a while, but so far, they haven't done much of anything in terms of damage," Lindsey explained, keeping an eye on Lola. "She's currently back where the building took off, probably to finish off Lola's twin, so Lola's gathering as much energy as she can to try one last, desperate move."

Lincoln looked back at Lola. "I see..."

A couple seconds later, from Lola's back she sprouted a pair of pink, diamond-shaped wings, and soon enough, the energy spheres stopped coming. And as soon as that happened, Lola was surrounded by a large pink aura, with little sparkles inside.

"Go, Lola!" Lincoln yelled at the top of his lungs, and with a wide smile. "You can do it!"

 _Back with Lola..._

The pink-light-enveloped girl felt the energy of her caste go inside her, and the light soon morphed into a crystalline form, before shattering to pieces to reveal Lola had not only been empowered by the spheres, but also seemingly reached a new form altogether.

Her dress remained unchanged except for one particular feature: On the chest was a large diamond symbol, witha small, orange spades symbol inside it. Her pageant strap transformed into a veil connected to the wrists of her opera gloves, and her hair had grown longer, with the lower part almost like a cape from a distance. She was also surrounded by a pink aura, with sparkles inside, probably just to look cool.

Her eyes turned into pink diamonds, her sclera became a magenta color, and a pair of diamond-shaped wings sprouted from her back, allowing her to fly up in the air without suddenly plummeting to the ground.

The girl turned to see her left hand, and as she clenched it into a fist and covered it in crystal, she thought:

" _Thank you, everybody. I'll make sure not to waste this chance I got. I'm going to end this right her, right now, with this final shot!_ "

Lola got ready to "leap" from the sky, and with a single flap from her diamond wings, the girl flew towards the fight of Proto-Lola and Lana, just in time too, since it looked like Proto-Lola was holding a bruised Lana up by the neck of her shirt. Soon enough, Lana noticed the incoming Lola, and exchanging a knowing nod with her sister, she kicked Proto-Lola right in the chin, then kicked her straight towards the site, with the prototype just barely recognizing the light and turning around to see Lola just about to pummel her with a fist empowered by the energy of her castte.

Mere moments before the empowered crystal fist hit her right in the face, Proto-Lola smiled, and retained said smile as she was punched, with time seemingly slowing down, or outright stopping, as the prototype hit the ground, and a pillar of light burst from the ground, forming a diamond-shaped light at the end of it. A light that could be seen from all over the city, and even beyond.

 _At the Loud house..._

Lori stood outside in the frontyard, arms folded behind her back as she watched the resulting pillar of light with a smile. And then Leni and Carol barged into the frontyard.

"Lori, we felt the ground shake, what-" Leni exclaimed before noticing the diamond. "Wait a minute, that's, like, Lola's energy!"

"How can you tell?" Carol asked.

"Proto-Lola's energy looks more like a saturated pink!" Leni hugged Carol. "You know what this means, right?! Lola won!"

Carol returned the hug and she and Leni jumped in joy as Lori continued to watch, feelings of pride surging through her body.

 _The organization..._

Rita and Lynn Sr. hugged and rejoiced as a screen in their room flashed "Jophiel: Victorious" repeatedly in pink letters. And as they did that, a certain someone too a peek from the keyhole.

This someone was Greg, who put up a little smile as he was then approached by Coach Pacowski, still wearing his armor from earlier.

"Greg, the carriage is ready for transport," Pacowski stated, getting the lanky man's attention. "Are you ready to take Mr. Universe to the battlefield, get some of our agents back, and help clean up the mess in general?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," Greg walked away. "Just let me go see the guy and tell him to get ready."

Pacowski shook his head and chuckled.

 _Maggie's house..._

Sam, Maggie, Tabby, and Polly leaned close to the window as they watched the diamond light in the sky.

"Whoa, look at that amazing light display!" Sam exclaimed as Tabby leaned a little closer to the window. "I don't know who did it or how they did it, but it's nice."

"Yeah... though I can't help but wonder how the whole "crystal queen" deal is going on over there," Tabby remarked, putting a hand on her cheek. "Do you think the Louds are okay?"

Suddenly, Sam got a message, and smiled and said, "See for yourself" before showing the message to Tabby. It was from Luna, and read:

"Dude, it's Luna! Are you guys seeing the sick diamond in the sky?! According to Leni, Lola made that diamond, and it sounds that she defeated her counterpart! Lola won, dude!"

Tabby smiled, and exchanged relieved looks as Polly went to her side and put a hand on her shoulder.

 _McBride Residence..._

Clyde left the house through the front door and smiled as he spotted the diamond in the sky. He took a couple steps closer, and it wasn't long before he heard somebody say:

"Nice view, huh?"

The boy flinched and turned around, spotting Penelope on the roof as she added, "But trust me, the view's much better over here!"

"Penelope, how did you get up there?!" Clyde exclaimed with worry, only to grow angry as he shouted, "Get down here before you get hurt!"

Suddenly, Penelope slid down the rooftop and jumped off, before aiming her palms forward and forming a slide downwards made of ice. She slid down the passage, and landed in Clyde's arms before snapping her fingers, causing the slide to vanish from existence.

"You worry too much, you know?" Penelope teased, grabbing Clyde's cheek as she added, "By the way, that diamond in the sky means that the diva pipsqueak won."

Clyde flinched at the statement, even dropping Penelope in shock.

 _The Casagrandes' Building..._

Carlota sat on the porch of the building, watching the diamond in the sky with a look of satisfaction. The stray cats that usually attacked everybody were also nearby, encased in pink crystal, but nobody seemed to notice.

However, Carlota soon heard somebody cheer loudly... from Ronnie Anne's bedroom, so she went back inside and into the room as fast as she could to find Ronnie Anne jumping up and down her bed in joy.

"Ronalda..." Carlota blurted, causing Ronnie to stop jumping and cheering. "You know Mom hates it when you jump on the bed. But most importantly, why are you here? How did you get here?"

"By the tunnels, duh!" Ronnie answered as she turned and sat down. "What, you think after showing them to us that we wouldn't use them? And... I'm here for something important."

Carlota wearily sighed. "I bet you want me to explain the whole "working with the enemy" thing, huh?"

With a stern look, Ronnie Anne stated, "I'll even sleep here if it's necessary, but I'm not leaving this house until you tell me what's up with you and Not-Diva-O."

 _Back at the battlefield..._

The spot where the building was now resembled a diamond, with both Lola and Proto-Lola laying inside it. They were both brought back to their normal forms, and Proto-Lola was laying facing at the ground, while Lola faced the sky, and watched the orange sunset sky and some birds fly as she felt a surge of satisfaction go through her body.

Then, shortly after that, several people ran to and surrounded Lola, with Lana getting closer than the rest. She grabbed and slightly, gently lifted Lola up in a bridal carry.

"Lana... I did it... my counterpart... I knocked her out!" Lola said weakly. "Or... am I... getting the wrong idea?"

"No, you really did it, Lola," Lana stated, pride being evident in her tone.

Lola smiled. "We won."

Lana shook her head. "You won."

And then people gasped and pointed at some shards nearby where Lola layed, that looked partially organic, with meat and bone as well. Lola then looked at her left arm, and saw it was reduced to a bloody stump.

"What the heck happened to her arm?!" Winston exclaimed as he walked forward to see the duo a little closer.

"She hit her so hard, not only did she knock her out, but her arm shattered into several pieces," Lana explained as she gently caressed her twin's head, and held back tears as she took a closer look at the arm stub. "D-Does it hurt?"

"Don't look too close!"

Everybody turned around to look at the source of the voice, and they saw Lindsey, who was struggling to break free from Chandler's grasp. Eventually, she managed to free herself and kick him in the guy, stunning the boy long enough to let the redhead run to the duo's aid.

"Don't touch her!" Lindsey exclaimed as she ran towards the duo, and sat next to them. "The crystal mostly broke all of the meat and bone, but there's still some bone remaining. Let me wrap-"

"Don't get any closer!" Lana snapped, crawling away from Lindsey.

"Lana, let her help," Lola requested with a weak tone, getting both her sister and Lindsey's attention. "All this time, I've seen Lindsey as an enemy, as someone inferior, but I was just projecting myself onto her."

"I like to think what you did was more along the lines of trying to intimidate me," Lindsey remarked as she reached for her bandages. "Now, let me wrap up that stub so it doesn't get infected or something."

Lindsey took off her bandages and wrapped them around Lola's arm stub as carefully and gently as possible as everybody, even Lola, watched and were caught off-guard by how the girl's face looked. It almost looked like another Lola was healing the diva.

"You..." Lana blurted, getting Lindsey's attention. "You look like a redheaded Lola."

"You asked for your face to be reconstructed so it looked like mine, huh?" Lola pondered out loud, earning a nod from the red. "Why... why would you do that?"

"Well, the story behind that is a bit funny," the redhead giggled. "But that doesn't matter right now. What matters is that you can finally rest. You won."

Just as Lola and Lindsey exchanged smiles, however, faint laughter could be heard in the distance. And then, as the laughter grew louder, the trio stood up, and flinched when Proto-Lola slowly got up, and started laughing like a madwoman.

Just as things seemed tense, however, Proto-Lola swung her hair back and wildly clapped as her laughter, rather than being filled with mad bloodthirst, now sounded proud and pleased.

"Fantastic finisher right there, Jophiel! You actually learned something from our last encounter years ago!" Proto-Lola exclaimed, folding her arms as she added, "You might not be as much of a disappointment as I thought you were!"

Then, the prototype turned to face Lincoln, who was just arriving while carrying an unconscious Lynn, and said with a smug smirk, "And you're certainly not as much of a disappointment as your father."

Lincoln's briefly changed, gaining orange sclera and spades-shaped pupils as he growled, only to turn back to normal soon afterwards. And as Lincoln walked towards the twins, Proto-Lola noticed that Lola was giving her a confused look, almost as if she didn't understand what she just said.

"Lola, sweetheart, you still don't get it, don't you?" Proto-Lola scoffed, swaying her hair to the left. "The fact you had to call forth the power of all the nearby people from our caste, makes it very clear that you only won by sheer luck. I mean, think about it; Would your plan have worked if there weren't anybody from our caste around?"

Lola continued to catch her breath as the prototype diva continued:

"Perhaps, your attack would've done nothing if you had used it without the borrowed energy. Or maybe you thought I would've striked back, or blocked, or counter-attacked your little punch without the energy. You had to trust an unreliable variable just to put a dent on me!"

"Who cares about that anymore?!" Lana snapped. "Just go away already, we defeated you fair and square!"

Proto-Lola turned to look at Lindsey, and as soon as all eyes were on her, the girl revealed:

"When I first summoned Proto-Lola, we struck a deal: In exchange for helping me show Lola's true self, I had to reveal my true face to the world. Then, when things got intense, we made another deal: I'd go with her to her dimensions... if she held back and gave you girls a fighting chance to win."

Everybody gasped, with Winston taking a step back and Chandler covering his mouth and looking absolutely horrified.

"But, if it makes you feel better, that last attack you did actually hurt me," Proto-Lola added, getting everybody's attention once more. "You impressed me, and you surpassed my expectations. And that, I will applaud you for."

Proto-Lola applauded as Lindsey walked to her side. "Fantastic display, Jophiel! You're one step closer to becoming a proper successor to my power! But you're not quite there yet, you got it?"

The prototype aimed her left palm at a nearby tree, then shot a diamond-shaped energy blast, which then blew up and transformed into a diamond-shaped portal. Just as she and Lindsey went through it, Winston raised his hand and shouted:

"Wait!"

"What is it?" the proto-diva asked, turning to the boy alongside Lindsey.

"L-Listen, I don't know what sort of benefit you get from taking Lindsey, but please, can't we discuss this so she can stay?!" Winston pleaded, clasping his hands as he added. "I-If you're not willing to get out of here without somebody coming with you, then take me instead!"

Lindsey blushed. "Winston..."

"Listen, boy, Samael may find value in having both genders at her command, but I don't have use for a guy among my ranks," Proto-Lola sternly answered. "If you want to try and get closer to Lindsey, then pray every night for a way to meet her again. I'm sure Luna will answer your prayers eventually."

Proto-Lola then turned to Chandler. "Or you could just as easily ask him for directions."

Chandler gritted his teeth and growled as Proto-Lola bowed down, and she and Lindsey leaped through the portal... or at least, Lindsey did. Proto-Lola turned back to face Lola, then looked around until she saw her crown. She extended her arm towards it, and the crown magically flew back on top of her head.

"I'm assuming you used this thing to figure out that trick, Jophiel," Proto-Lola shook her head. "Don't worry, you'll be able to keep it one day, the day you become worthy of being my successor. But sadly, that day, isn't today."

With that said, Proto-Lola jumped through the portal, which vanished from existence soon afterwards. With that done, the Loud siblings took the chance to leave the area as soon as possible, and rest at a nearby bench.

"Well, this whole schtik's over, right?" Lincoln asked as he put the unconscious Lynn next to him. "I mean, the other progenitors are going to be problem, but, right now, Proto-Lola's been dealt with, right?"

"Yeah, I don't think she'll bother us again for a while," Lola answered before clenching her fist. "Until then, we all need to train so we'll be able to face them on more equal grounds."

Just then, Lynn slowly woke up and groaned in pain, getting her siblings' attention.

"Man, my head's hurting like heck," Lynn remarked, before noticing the trio. "Oh hey guys, what happened?"

"I took the crown, found a way to defeat Proto-Lola, and did something that needs to be seen to be believed," Lola explained eagerly. "And I couldn't have done it without you and Lana. You bought me enough time to find a soluttion, and even got the crown that helped me decide what to do!"

Lynn blushed and scratched the back of her head. "W-Well, it was the least I could do."

Lincoln and the twins chuckled at Lynn's response, prompting her to gently jab the boy's shoulder. With that done, and once the laughter died down, Lincoln and the twins got off the bench, while Lynn sprouted her fire wings and flew off the bench, making sure not to put pressure on her foot

"Lynn, you do know that you'll have to rest, right?" Lincoln pointed out, getting the jock's attention. "I mean, your foot won't heal overnight."

"Actually, it might, because it's not so much an injury as it stung hitting supernatural crystal," Lynn argued in return, her siblings shaking their heads and rolling their eyes with amused looks. "I think that I'll be able to walk on it tomorrow morning."

"Okay, anyway, it's a bit of a long way home," Lincoln grabbed the twins' hands. "We should probably get going. And besides, maybe we can find someone who can help "

The sisters nodded, and so the quartet walked back home, having earned their first victory against one of the progenitors.

* * *

 **-Next Chapter Preview-**

"Hi everybody, Lisa here!"

Lincoln watched his sisters walk downstairs, with Lisa speaking with Luan and Luna, the latter holding Lily in her arms.

"I just can't believe my siblings sometimes!"

The duo spoke with the prodigy some more, and then left, with Lily calling out for Lisa before she went to Lincoln. And then, moments later, Ronnie Anne and Clyde arrived.

"I mean, the one time something insane happens to me, and they don't even bother to hear me out! And from the looks of it, Lincoln and his friends aren't in such good moods either."

Suddenly, Bun-Bun landed with the quartet, and everybody spoke for a bit before Lincoln handed Clyde the toy bunny.

"And now Lincoln's toy bunny's here? Hey, if they can help us relax, so be it."

Clyde pushed the spades symbol on Bun-Bun's shirt

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Lori spoke with someone on her phone for a bit, before hanging it and getting a serious look.

"A Moment of Brief Relief! Is Bun-Bun More Than Meets the Eye?"

Bun-Bun, now looking like a toddler-sized bunny version of Lincoln, finished transforming and pulled a pose.

"Don't miss it."

Finally, now at Lincoln's bedroom, Bun-Bun turned back to look at Leni, before the girl grabbed and lifted the sentient toy, revealing she had crimson eyeshadow, and red eyes.


	17. Bun-Bun

**Well, I got some explaining to do.**

 **My flight was delayed due to issues with the country I was flying to, and going by some chitchat I heard some other time ago, I no longer even know if I'll be flying out of here next week. I originally thought my mom, sister, and I were going to leave on the 22th, but now it might be the 28th or 29th! As if things couldn't get any messier!**

 **But hey, at least it gives me more time to write for this story. And speaking of which, I think this is where the hiatus is gonna start. I'm gonna keep writing, of course, but I won't update this story until at least the Proto-Lana arc is finished, because believe it or not, in all of this time since writing it, I'm only now reaching the climax XD**

 **Is the climax gonna be as bombastic as Proto-Lola's arc's climax? I hope not, because if so, I would need to take a breather afterwards. One doesn't just write 12000+ or double-length specials like nobody's business, you know? But, that's all from me: Hiatus starts now, Proto-Lana's arc isn't quite done yet, so here's a quick, short little chapter after a bombastic climax.**

 **Also, review responses! :D**

 **1) LoudAutomata16: She probably won't, but she gotta act tough, so she most likely won't bring it up again.**

 **2) Nobody245:**

 *** There's already an arc like that. It's called, "The Loud House" XD**

 *** Proto-Lana's next.**

 *** Keep in mind that there lovechildren not just between somebody and Lincoln.**

 **3) Omega Ultra: Yeah, the plots may have been going overkill.**

 **4) Hatoralo: ...**

 **5) animehero1000:**

 *** Cross-Caste is a decent way to say it. Also, sorry about the Space Jam thing XD**

 *** Hopefully he gets better.**

 *** Then again, it also cranks up the probability of dying from it up to 2000%, so...**

 *** Thanks, and hopefully it only gets better, 'cause that was just the FIRST major fight... that doesn't end in complete defeat, anyway.**

 **6) Observant Guest: Well dang, I know the series is jokingly called "Drag-On Ball Z" but come on now.**

 *** Believe it or not, I actually did have an idea to use the bunny counterparts from that episode, but I quickly scratched it off after I figured it would just make things more complicated.**

 *** No, Carol's the only cross-caste character that's on the picture right now. But I'll give you a compensation fact: Most love children that aren't between Lincoln... are cross-caste.**

 *** Yeah, those were some nice moments.**

* * *

 **Episode 17: A Moment of Brief Relief! Is Bun-Bun More Than Meets the Eye?**

* * *

A new day dawned upon the city of Royal Woods, a day that everybody hopefully assumed would be a relaxing, fairly normal day, specially after the unbelievable day that was yesterday: A beauty pageant turned out to be a trap set by Proto-Lola, the Louds-some of them anyway-Used their powers for the first time, Lola seemingly reached a level beond mortals, and as if that wasn't enough, despite being defeated, Proto-Lola took with her Lindsey Sweetwater, daughter of the one and only Mr. Universe.

So yeah, lots of crazy stuff happened yesterday, so nobody would complain if today was calm, quiet, boring even.

And that's exactly how the morning at the Loud household was for the most part. Lincoln walked downstairs and sat on the couch, with the rest of his sisters coming downstairs as well soon afterwards. Some a little bit more grumpy or angry than others.

"I'm telling you, a bizarre situation like that really did occur without warning! I had no time to take additional safety measures!" Lisa exclaimed at Luna, who was holding Lily in her arms. "Lily was safely secure in the deeper bowels of the laboratory, the assault didn't reach her, and Darcy even saved me and her from a worst case scenario, so-!"

"Lisa, for the last time, you may have seen something bogus, and we feel for you, but the fact is that Lily could've gotten hurt!" Luna answered, giving Lisa an angry, disappointed glare in the process. "Even if Darcy did help you like how you're saying, leaving Lily by herself is not okay!"

"Yeah, you were supposed to keep her safe, for crying out loud!" Luan exclaimed, chuckling at her accidental joke before snapping. "But seriously, it's not cool that Lily was this close to getting hurt! I mean, we know you flip the bird at safety precautions in general, but we thought you'd make an exception this time!"

"Listen, you wanna incriminate someone? Blame yourselves, or whoever placed Lily in my charge in the first place!" Lisa snapped, putting her hands on her hips as she, Luna, Luan, and Lily reached the floor. "You all have known me long enough to know that putting anything or anyone under my care can only go wrong. Yet you still put me in charge of keeping her safe while you were all training with the Lori clone or whatever! You have to admit that-"

"Lisa, stop, we already made a decision," Luna sternly stated. "This time, Lily's staying with us, on the sidelines where we can watch her, and you'll go to your laboratory and do your lab things, alone."

"But-"

"But nothing, dude! Now upstairs, you're grounded!" Luan yelled at the top of her lungs, earning a confused look from Luna, Lisa, and even Lily. "What? That's what the 'rents say when trying to get their disciplining us. I thought that's what we were trying to do?"

Her siblings still stared at na rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Let's just go to the backyard and get back to training already."

And so, Luna and Luan walked past Lisa and joined the rest of the sisters as they went to the backyard for training, with Lily trying to extend her arm towards Lisa and shouting "Sa Sa!" as she was taken as well. Once she was gone, Lisa somberly looked at the ground and went to sit right next to Lincoln on the couch. Noticing this, Lincoln wrapped his hand around Lisa's shoulder and comforted her to the best of his ability.

And then the duo heard the doorbell. Lincoln released Lisa, walked to and opened the door, where he saw Ronnie Anne and Clyde outside.

"Okay, after yesterday, I was expecting both of you to show up here, but I didn't think you would come together," Lincoln remarked as Clyde and Ronnie Anne walked in and sat on the couch, while Lincoln was left to close the door. "What brings you two here?"

"I asked Carlota about her relation to Diva-O's counterpart, and what she told me... left me conflicted. I had trouble sleeping that night, even!" Ronnie answered with a shrug. "So, I figured that I could come to Royal Woods to try relax, since I need to stay away from both of my homes for now."

"Ronnie Anne originally came to my house, since we both know yours would probably be too crazy to unwind," Clyde explained, sighing before adding. "But we both came here after we realized that, without you, we really can't stand each other. I mean, Ronnie's just too impulsive and aggressive for me to get used to."

"Well, Clyde over here is too nerdy for my tastes," Ronnie Anne turned to Lincoln with a little smile. "And so, I need you around to somewhat balance the nerdiness-coolness bars in the moment."

Lincoln sighed in frustration and sat back at the couch. "Can't you two be friends and be done with it?"

"No!" Clyde and Ronnie Anne stated in unison, Clyde doing so with a serious tone, while Ronnie Anne used a cheerful tone.

"You two are likely to be wed in the future," Lisa deadpanly remarked, rolling her eyes at the interaction as all eyes fell on her. "Or at the asolute minimum, you will end up becoming actual friends, rather than frenemies with a common cause."

Clyde and Ronnie Anne looked at Lisa incredulously, before Ronnie tilted her head and bluntl asked, "Science-O, when the heck did you get here?"

Just then, a familiar-or maybe not-group of animals ran down the stairs: The Loud pets, Waltz, Charles, Geo, and Cliff, with another familiar face riding on top of Charles, Bun-Bun. The pets stopped right on their tracks, and waited as Charles sniffed the area to figure out just what was going on.

Among the smells he felt, he felt the smell of exhaustion, disappointment, and, for some reason, freshly opened comic books. With that done, Charles walked back, then ran a bit before suddenly stopping, sending Bun-Bun flying straight into Lincoln's lap.

"Okay, Bun-Bun's bound to be noticed by them soon," Charles telepathically said as he and the other pets went back to the staircase. "Come on, let's leave before they see us!"

"Are we ever going to do something other than what that toy tells us to do?" Cliff asked, rolling his eyes in frustration.

The pets went back upstairs... except for Geo, who tried to get up, but his hamster ball prevented him from doing so. Seeing this, Waltz flew to the hamster ball and telepathically whined, "What would you do without me?" as he grabbed and helped the hamster go up.

"Oh look, it's Lincoln's plush bunny," Lisa remarked rather nonchalantly. "Where did it come from?"

"I don't know, but he cheers me up when I'm feeling down, so I don't mind him popping out of nowhere," Lincoln then took a closer look at his plush bunny buddy. "Oh hey, he also has a spades symbol on his shirt, though it looks more like a button."

"Oh really? You think something happens if you push it?" Ronnie Anne gentl jabbed Clyde's shoulder. "Hey, Nerd-O, press the button!"

Clyde got ready to snap at Ronnie Anne, only for Lincoln to hand him Bun-Bun, with a look that said "I trust you with him" with a wide smile. With that done, Clyde took the plush toy, then pushed the button.

What came next could easily be described as a magical girl transformation: Bun-Bun flew up in the air, glowing orange colors, before slightly growing bigger, probably just as big as Lisa, with his ears growing up to boot, as well as him gaining a full head of hair in a similar style, and even color, to Lincoln.

Bun-Bun's shirt turned into a full-body suit, with the spades button turning into a symbol located on the chest. And then, as soon as he hit the ground, the glowing colors vanished, revealing Bun-Bun had transformed into a toddler-sized rabbit boy version of Lincoln.

He then struck a pose, and a cheerful voice shouted "Bun-Bun!" as the transformation finally ended.

Simply put, everybody was stunned.

"Clyde can bring toys to life!" Lisa exclaimed, putting both hands on her cheeks in disbelief.

"I don't think that's what actually happened," Ronnie Anne remarked. "I think when Nerd-O pressed that spades button on Lame-O's plush toy, he might've triggered a transformation or something."

"Whatever, he still gave a inanimate object sentience!" Lisa grabbed Clyde's arm and pulled him. "Come on, we need to experiment with this as much as we can! Bring Lola's toys to life next! I'm sure they're holding some covert secrets for to be uncovered!"

"Okay Lisa, first of all, that's... something Lola would do, actually, but it's probably nothing we haven't heard before," Lincoln turned to Bun-Bun and petted him. "And second, we should focus on Bun-Bun rather than anything else, and see if he knows what happened, right, Bun-Bun?"

"You're absolutely right, Master Lincoln," Bun-Bun stated with a voice that sounded similar to Lincoln's, but younger and more innocent.

Needless to say, that statement utterly shook the team.

"Did he just talk?" Clyde asked as Lisa grew excited, Ronnie narrowed her eyes, and Lincoln... was too stunned to imply anything, really, "Did he seriously just talk?!"

"Okay, hold your horses, we need some answers right now!" Ronnie Anne snapped and walked forward to Bun-Bun. "How long have you been able to talk?!"

Bun-Bun remained silent.

"Come on, give me an answer!" Ronnie Anne put her hands on her hips. "The faster you answer the question, the faster we can move this along."

The toy rabbit remained silent, though his worried look implied he wasn't being mute by choice.

"Oh, giving me the cold shoulder, huh?" Ronnie Anne folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. "Listen, I know I didn't act nice before, and being someone close to somebody like Lame-O, who's apparently the ultimate deity or something, is probably going to make you grow a bit of an ego, but you could at least talk to me for a couple seconds before choosing to ignore, right?"

And then Lisa whistled, gaining everybody's attention

"Guys, we can't just let this window of opportunity close itself! Who knows how long this plush toy will stay in it's current form!" Lisa turned to Bun-Bun and asked, "Listen, Bun-Bun, can I take out some of your physical composition and perform some tests and analysis on it?"

Bun-Bun raised a concerned eyebrow.

"Sorry, let me try to simplify," Lisa took a deep breath. "Can I cut out a piece of you and do things to it?"

Bun-Bun flinched and immediately ran to Lincoln for cover, with Lincoln and Clyde throwing angry looks at Lisa as Ronnie Anne quipped, "Good job, Science-O, you sure got a way with words!"

"I'm sorry, alright? I'm just so... excited, that this is actually happening!" Lisa lifted her arms. "We have some sort of brand new mode of this Bun-Bun we've never seen before! We should be trying to find out as much about him as possible!"

"But making him freak out and think that we're going to treat him like a science project isn't the way to do it!" Lincoln snapped, adopting a gentler tone once he turned to the sentient plush toy. "Why are you so tight lip with them, Bun-Bun?"

"Bun-Buns in general can't physically speak to anybody but their masters," Bun-Bun frowned with worry. "If we're not told to reply or talk, or if we get our gaze out of sight from our master, we simply can't speak at all, period! It's like some sort of seal or curse we can't fix or break."

Just then, two particular girls came back inside and through the kitchen: Lori and Leni. Just before they left it, though, Leni spotted the scene, flinched, and hid with Lori back into the kitchen before they were spotted.

"Ouch!" Lori yelped in pain, prompting Leni to cover her mouth. Not that it stopped her next words to be inaudible, "Leni, what the heck was that all about?!"

"Stay quiet, will you? They might spot us!" Leni silently replied, then uncovered Lori's mouth. "Listen, take a long look at the living room, and don't shout again!"

Lori rolled her eyes and obliged. "Okay, but I literally don't see why."

"Listen, does that toy-rabbit-kid close to Lincoln look familiar to you?" Leni asked as Lori took a quick glance at the scene, her eyes widening as Leni continued, "It's Bun-Bun! For some reason, he's no longer in his toy mode! He, like, somehow transformed into servant mode!"

"One of those four, probably Lincoln, must've pressed the spades symbol on Bun-Bun's chest, turning him from toy to servant," Lori pondered, scratching her chin as she turned back to Leni. "If Lincoln lets him speak freely, which is likely, then he's going to blabber on and on and spill too much sensitive information."

Then Lori thought a bit more about it. "Although, he could also just end up spitting out a bunch of pointless nonsense-"

"We still, like, need to shut him up before he reveals anything!" Leni said, clasping her hands. "Any ideas?"

Lori looked around the kitchen, then spotted the oven, which was turned on. "I left some frozen pizzas on the oven to defrost, and they should be ready by now-"

"Right! You'll distract those four with the frozen pizza, while I take Bun-Bun upstair and convince him to keep his stuffed snout closed!" Leni stated with a tone of relief. "You saw this coming and prepared for it in advance, didn't you?"

"What? No, I felt hungry and I wanted some pizza," Lori shrugged. She then scratched the back of her head with a sheepish smile. "But, for the sake of making me look cooler, let's assume I did prepare for it in advance."

And then the oven timer said "Ding!"

Lori smiled. "And that's the cue for the plan."

Lori came out of the kitchen and shouted, "Who wants pizza?!", prompting the quartet to run to the kitchen and start eating pizza with her, allowing Leni to grab the surprised Bun-Bun and take him upstairs.

And hey, if the other sisters found out about the pizza and burst in looking for some, she could also avoid some troublesome stuff down there too.

Nevertheless, Leni ran to Lincoln's bedroom and closed the door before putting Bun-Bun on Lincoln's bed, followed by her sitting right next to him.

"Bun-Bun, my sweet little Bun-Bun," Leni remarked, gently petting the toddler-sized living plush bunny's hair. "I remember the first time I sew you, and the first time you came to life. You were so confused, so innocent, and as far as I can see, that innocence hasn't quite gone away."

"I'm assuming you mean me potentially spilling a lot of beans by accident, right?" Bun-Bun pondered, and Leni stopped petting him right afterwards. "Listen, I know I should keep my mouth shut, but I can't! I feel so free when I can talk freely that I... go overboard sometimes."

"I know how that feels, Lori and I have been forced to stay quiet as well, mostly Lori," Leni answered as she reached for and took off one of her earrings. "But still, some secrets must remain secret. Which is why I feel sorry for what I'm about to do."

Leni took off her remaining earring as Bun-Bun pondered what she was talking about, and next thing the plush toy knew, they were grabbed by the neck of their jumpsuit and lifted by Leni, whose hair was currently covering her eyes.

"Now, with all formalities aside," Leni looked up to Bun-Bun, revealing she had crimson eyeshadow, as well as red piercing eyes. "What the hell did you tell my siblings!?"

"V-Velvet mode?! You activated your velvet mode?!" Bun-Bun asked, trying to break free from the girl's grasp. "Is it really necessary to-"

Leni tightened her grip. "Listen up, there are things in reality that my siblings can't know yet, hell, there are things that they'll never be able to understand! So you better spit it out, you fabricated slave, what the hell did you tell them!?"

"I-I only got as far as telling them about my kind's curse that doesn't let us speak to our non-masters!" Bun-Bun nervously answered, holding back tears as he was pinned against the wall. "I-I haven't told them anything else, I swear!"

"And you bet your ass you're not telling them anything else, because just like how you were sewed to life, you can also be sewed out of it!" Leni leaned closer to the plush toy's face. "If they ask you about anything else, stay quiet no matter what, understood!?"

Bun-Bun rapidly nodded, and Leni dropped the living toy. And as Bun-Bun checked his throat and let out a few tears, Leni grabbed her earrings and put one back on.

"I'm sorry I, like, acted so terrifying to tell you that, Bun-Bun," Leni said before putting the remaining earring on, turning her back to normal, no eyeshadow or red eyes present. "But, you know how your kind works; They only fully hear and obey their masters, everybody else may be misinterpreted."

Leni walked to and helped Bun-Bun get up as she added, "And misinterpretation wasn't something I was willing to get from you. Now get going."

Bun-Bun ran off as fast as he could, and Leni followed soon afterwards. What she found outside was Lori, with a wide stupid smile, and clearly holding back her laughter.

"What's, like, so funny?" Leni asked, getting a smile herself.

"I just realized the sheer irony of _you_ being the one to freak out about the situation and fix it with force, while _I'm_ the one left to act as a bait," Lori answered, letting out a couple chuckles in the process. "In any other situation, the roles are completely backwards!"

"Whatever, at least Bun-Bun's going to keep his mouth shut," Leni sighed and put her arms on her hips. "Should we, like, go back to help the others train?"

And then, Lori's phone rang. "You go and help them, I'll answer this call."

Leni nodded, and as soon as she was out of view, Lori took out her phone and answered the call, "Hello?"

"Hi babe," Bobby answered on the other end. "Listen, some acquaintances came to the Casagrandes' house, looking for Ronnie Anne. Do you think you could bring her back? And also could you bring Lincoln and Clyde too? They want to talk to all of them."

"Why?" Lori bluntly asked.

Bobby sighed. "Hey, you wanna ask, you gotta come here. Specially since they also have an offer to make you."

The man hung up the call afterwards, and Lori sighed before stating sternly:

"Well, time to make use of my diplomatic skills, I guess."

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview...**

A chibi, or much smaller and cuter Carol stood next to a blackboard that had "Next Chapter Preview" written on it as she spoke:

"Hi everybody, it's Carol! And I'm here to tell you what to expect for the next chapter."

Carol looked at herself. "Why do I look like this, you ask?"

Carol twirled and struck a pose. "Oh, please, somebody had to look like this eventually! Anyway, let's begin with the preview!"

The teenager quickly erased the "Next Chapter Preview" and replaced it with a drawing of Tabby and Polly.

"Two certain special guests will be joining the training sessions with the Louds: These being Polly Pain and Tabby, Lynn and Luna's friends! But that's not all!"

Carol erased the drawings of the girls, then drew pairs of the Loud sisters, some on one side, like Lucy and Luan, and Luna and Lynn, and some other pairings on the other side, like Lola and Lana, and Polly and Tabby.

"The training will be done through tag team matches, to try and develop some teamwork tactics! 'Cause, you know, not all fight's can be won alone. Anyhow, that's all you need to know about the next episode:"

Carol erased those drawings, then wrote the next chapter's title on the blackboard.

"Tag Team Training! Tabby and Polly Join the Training Sessions!"

For one last time, Carol erased the drawings, and then drew two rather peculiar pictures: Lola in her Jophiel form, and Ronnie Anne and Clyde looking at each other sternly.

"Don't miss it! See ya!"


	18. Tag Team Training

**Boo! Surprise update!**

 **Now, before anybody gets overly excited, this fic isn't going to return to a weekly update schedule yet. I still got some things I need to get used to before I can fully commit to resuming this story. And who knows, it might take a long while, but I will return to this story, I promise.**

 **And I know, leaving you off with a filler chapter and nothing else is possibly one of the cruelest things I could do. But hey, look at the Bright side: I'll manage to work around the issue, and I have faith that you can work around not having me update weekly.**

 **To the reviews! And sorry if I missed some of you!:**

 **1) Nobody245:**

 *** Lincoln is SUPPOSED to be part of the training sessions, but if he gets stronger, then Sincoln gets stronger, and that's the last thing anybody wants to happen. And besides, while the protosisters have a beef with Lincoln, they have a more direct beef with the neo sisters, who are supposed to replace them as leaders of the new world.**

 *** Quick question, who does Bun-Bun belong to? If you answered Lincoln, then you answered your own question.**

 *** Yes, I do have plans to include some more lovechildren in the future.**

 **2) LoudAutomata16: Yes it does! XD**

 **3) Omega Ultra: We all do.**

 **4) animehero1000: The chibi preview will stay for filler and minor chapters. Exotos has spoken!**

 *** What can be said and what can't be said... that's complicated.**

 *** And that's her being lenient.**

 **5) Observant Guest:**

 *** I'm glad, I don't wanna pull a Kingdom Hearts and make things really hard to find out XD**

 *** That, and Lisa's experiments are rather dangerous, which everybody should've noticed earlier.**

 *** Maybe, maybe not. What's certain is that Ronnie Anne and Clyde have a long road ahead of them.**

 *** Thanks for the wishes, I appreciate it. :)**

 **6) ChernoMan: Thank you.**

 **And now, to the chapter! YAAAAAY! :D**

* * *

 **Episode 18: Tag Team Training! Tabby and Polly Join the Training Sessions!**

* * *

 _Next day, at the Loud backyard..._

Carol stood in front of most of the Loud sisters, who were stretching a bit and performing short exercises to get prepared for the training, while the trio of Ronnie, Lincoln and Clyde stood at the sidelines, alongside Lori and Leni, the latter holding Lily in her arms. The odd one out was Lynn, who was outright exercising in a way most olympic athletes would.

"Lynn, stop that right now," Carol requested, getting both the jock's attention, and getting her to stop for a moment. "I know Leni healing your leg made you feel a bit more energetic, but we're just doing quick exercises to prepare for the training, we're not getting ready for the Olympics."

"Well, who knows, maybe one of the progenitors will try some Olympics-styled event in the future?!" Lynn snapped, sitting on the ground and folding her arms. "Just saying we should be ready for anything."

Carol just rolled her eyes and turned to face the remaining sisters. "Okay, let's get to the point, today we're going to have some guests to help out with our training. Two girls, Tabby and Polly Pain, who were recruited to help us-at least for today-thanks to the efforts of Lori and Leni over there."

Everybody turned to face the girls, and Lori folded her arms and put on a proud smile as she answered, "It all started, while you were all busy training..."

 _Yesterday, at the Casagrande Residence..._

Lori knocked the door and Bobby immediately opened it to find both Lori and Leni standing outside. "Babe! Oh thank goodnes, I'm so glad you're here! Those three girls, especially the blonde one, were getting tired of waiting for you."

And then Sam audibly yelled, "For the last time, we're not your granddaughter's friends!"

"And Abuela Rosa hasn't really been doing a good job of calming them down," Bobby went behind the girls and pushed them inside as hard as he could. "Come with me: the faster we get there, the faster we can stop the blonde girl from blowing up."

And as the trio headed over there, Polly Pain, Tabby, and Sam sat at the kitchen table, eating some porridge while Rosa, the grandmother of the household, stood next to them looking quite confused. And though Polly and Tabby ate the porridge calmly, Sam wasn't, instead opting to look angrily at the woman.

"Are you sure you're not her friends?" Rosa inquired, seemingly oblivious of Sam's furious glare at her. "If I remember correctly, she had a friend with a helmet, a friend with a chessboard pattern somewhere on their person, and a gender-confused blonde friend."

"Listen, we've been through this half a dozen times already!" Sam snapped, taking a calm sip of her porridge before adding, "One, we're not her friends, two, I'm a girl, and three, we're not here to see your granddaughter, we are here to see your grandson's girlfriend! We thank you for the porridge, which is actually good all things considered, but for Christ's sake, at least try paying attention to me when I-"

Suddenly, the quartet heard a baby cry like a parrot nearby, "Oh, I think that must be Carlitos trying to imitate Sergio again. I should go make sure he doesn't try flying like him like last time!"

The elderly woman ran off, and Sam immediately went back to her porridge. "I swear, if she forgets what I just told her, again, I'm convinced; Everybody in this place has Down Syndrome, and not just the superhero guy who bugged us before!"

"Sam, I know Dad taught you to act like an impatient little brat, but we're in somebody else's house! You can't act like that in here, or anywhere for that matter, that's just rude!" Tabby exclaimed, getting her older sister's attention. "Try to take the attitude down a notch and wait, okay? You're gonna get us in trouble!"

The blonde musician folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. "What did I tell you about making impossible requests, young miss?"

Tabby sighed in exasperation. "Don't make said requests until I'm a world famous celebrity."

Sam petted Tabby's head with a proud smile. "Good girl."

"Sorry for the wait!" Bobby exclaimed as soon as he and the girls arrived, getting the trio's attention. "Lori, these are the girls that asked to meet you: Polly Pain, Tabby, and Sam."

Polly and Tabby waved hello at the duo, and at least Leni waved back with a little smile. Lori and Sam, however, maintained eye contact and their looks slowly turned into angry glares as Lori spoke:

" _You're_ my sister's girlfriend?"

And then Sam replied:

" _You're_ this bastard's girlfriend?!"

"Oh, you two know each other already?" Bobby worriedly asked, twiddling his fingers as Sam got up and she and Lori met face-to-face. "And apparently aren't on good terms?"

"Bobby, this is a girl who's a classmate of my sister, Luna," Lori sternly explained, not taking her eyes off Sam as said so. "According to her, this girl literally came up to her out of nowhere, looking drunk or something, and then made her into her girlfriend!"

Lori leaned closer. "You literally forced her to become your girlfriend against her will!"

"Look, I didn't force her to do anything, she already had a crush on me before we made the thing official!" Sam leaned back, then added with a smug smirk, "And can you blame her? Anybody who knew I was Mick Swagger's daughter would want to be my lover, no questions asked! The only difference is that she wanted me to be hers long before she found out about that little tidbit!"

"Okay, you two, I've been in the middle of enough girl-on-girl arguments to know this can only end with you two beating each other up," Bobby stated before separating the girls. "If you're gonna fight, take it somewhere else!"

"Fine then, if that's what you want," Sam rolled her eyes. "And if this skank over here doesn't chicken out-"

Suddenly, Lori grabbed Sam by the neck of her shirt and dragged her upstairs to Bobby's bedroom. Once that was done, Leni turned back to Tabby and Polly Pain and asked, "So, like, about the training, do you think you could come to our backyard tomorrow before midday?"

"Sure, sounds like a plan," Tabby answered, both her and Polly giving the fashionista a pair of thumbs up.

 _Back at the present..._

"And it was all because of Lori's diplomatic skills, and obviously nothing else, that we, like, managed to come to an agreement," Leni mockingly remarked, rolling her eyes as she added, "Thanks a lot, Lori, your impeccable diplomatic skills saved the day again."

"Aw, thanks Leni!" Lori replied just as mockingly, blushing and petting Leni's head as she added, "You're literally a sweetheart!"

"Wait a minute, there's a hole in your story," Luna stated, getting the duo's attention."If Lori and Sam did fight, which I'm not okay with, by the way, why doesn't Lori look like she got hurt or anything."

"Oh, I just, like, used one of my caste's powers to hide the bruises she got from the fight," Leni casually answered before snapping her fingers, causing Lori to glow turquoise for a moment before turning back to normal, revealing she had a black eye and some scuff marks around her face. "There you go."

"She barely got hurt at all!" Luna snapped, stomping the ground. "What 'bout Sam?! How hard did you hit her?!"

Lori scratched her chin and hummed to herself, trying to remember how the fight went.

 _Back at the Casagrandes' house, in the flashback..._

Bobby, Maria, and Frida entered Bobby's bedroom after the fight had ceased and Lori had walked out. What they found inside was that the room... was perfectly fine, nothing had been destroyed or even damaged during the fight, and the only odd thing they could notice was that Sam layed on the ground face-down, twitching

 _Back in the present..._

"She'll be fine, don't worry about her," Lori waved her hand in a dismissive manner. "Anyway, isn't it literally time to introduce your new partners?"

Carol nodded, and whistled at the fence, prompting both Polly and Tabby to enter through it. Once that was done, the girl walked to Carol's side and stood there as Carol explained:

"Just in case you don't know who is who, Tabby is the girl to my right with the stripe on her head, and who looks like a punk rocker, and Polly is the girl in my other side, with the roller skates," Carol explained, earning annoyed looks from the girls in response, which she didn't really notice. "Which means that Tabby can control sound, among other non-caste related things, and Polly can use fire-based powers and super speed. However, there's one important fact you must know about their powers."

"Tabby controlling sound isn't the major revelation?" Luna asked in disbelief. "Then, what else should we know?"

"Well, unlike you, who just found out had powers over a week ago, these two have known about their powers for years, and as such, they've had more time to train them," Carol crouched down and put a hand on the girls' shoulders. "Therefore, they're a bit more experienced than you in that regard. So, you're not training with people equal or weaker than you. Instead, you'll see what it's like to fight an opponent with better control over their power than you."

"Is that really necessary, though?" Lynn complained, folding her arms and rolling her eyes at the idea. "I mean, Lana, Lola, and I already faced off against Lola's counterpart, that should be enough, right? I'm sure Tabby and Polly agree with-"

Suddenly, Lynn noticed Polly was gone, and without warning, she felt somebody touch her back. The jock turned around and spotted Polly, sporting her characteristic smug smile, as she said:

"Tag, you're it!"

As soon as Lynn threw a punch, Polly sped through her and returned right back to her position, where she and Tabby shared a high-five as the other sisters, and even the trio of Lincoln, Clyde, and Ronnie Anne, looked in amazement at Polly's speed.

"Like I literally just said, these two have had time to perfect their abilities," Carol remarked as the duo turned to look at the sisters with a confident smiles. "So, training or not, don't take them lightly, okay? But first, I have to discuss something with Lori and Leni, so take the downtime to talk with them, get to know them, and hopefully become friends."

Carol narrowed her eyes and sternly stated, "Because trust me, if you wanna beat your counterparts eventually, you're going to need as many allies as you can get."

And with that said, Carol went to discuss something with Lori and Leni, while Tabby and Polly sat on the table nearby, being joined by the other six sisters soon afterwards. As for the trio sitting nearby the blonde girls, they just remained there, with Lincoln in particular looking like he thought it was for the better that way.

"So, you two wanted to help us train, huh?" Luna asked, tilting her head in curiosity. "What gave you the idea to do this?"

"After seeing the pink diamond in the sky your sister left a while ago, Tabby and I talked about it for a while, and we came to the conclusion that, sooner or later, all this craziness with your lookalikes is gonna worse," Polly cheerfully explained. "And we figured the best thing to do was help train the real deal put these copycats in their place!"

"By the way, Love, I gotta ask; what happened to your arm?" Tabby asked, pointing at Lola's arm stub. "Last time I saw you from the stands, you had both your arms. Did your counterpart do that to you, or what?"

Lola looked at her stub and grabbed it as Lana sternly replied, "What happened with her arm is a touchy subject, and why would you even ask that!"

"Hey, I'm just making a question, which she doesn;t have to answer," Tabby responded, folding her arms. "Besides if it's taboo why doesn't have bandages? she's not even trying to cover that stub, so-"

"I lost most of my left arm during the fight with my counterpart," Lola suddenly blurted, getting everyone's attention as she continued, "Lana, Lynn, and I fought with all we got, and even though Lana and Lynn got some good hits in, after they enraged her, it was up to me to put an end to it. So, I put on her crown, which Lynn grabbed during the fight, I got an idea; I called for the energy of all people from my caste. And I was empowered enough to not only take out the other me, but I also got some sort of transformation!"

Lana somberly looked elsewhere at the mention of the transformation, and Lola continued, "So when I punched her, something big happened after, and next thing I know I'm back to normal, my counterpart's back to normal, and she ends up leaving. But, the impact of the punch was so strong, also since my arm was covered in crystal, it shattered into a buncha pieces afterwards."

"And that's how you lost your arm, huh?" Polly blurted, recoiling at the thought of the arm shattering. "Geez, I can only imagine how that felt."

"Yeah, so how about we change the subject to something less soul shattering?" Luan inquired as she laughed, getting the pair's attention. "But seriously I wanna ask; why only the two of you? Why didn't Giggles come along?"

"The fact you ask that makes me doubt you know Giggles as well as she says you do," Polly sternly answered, folding her arms as she explained, "As an entertainer, Giggles' schedule made it impossible for her to spare some time to come here help you train. And even if she had time, she's not exactly the kind of person to jump into a brawl. Tease and prank people? Sure, she'll do that, but it's all in good fun."

"Well when you say it like that, my question sounds really dumb," Luan sighed and put a hand on her cheek. "I mean, Giggles isn't a saint, but she's still someone who'd rather solve things peacefully than with fists."

"What about Haiku?" Lucy suddenly blurted out and frightening the groups. She started twiddling her fingers as she nervously added, "She doesn't mind getting her hands dirty every once in a while, surely she could come, right?"

"Well, besides being a jerk in general to anybody but those she considers friends, there's another reason we didn't bring Haiku with us," Tabby stated, narrowing her eyes and scratching the side of her head. "Haiku's caste-"

Tabby pointed at Lucy. "The same caste that this girl belongs to, has a special quirk when it comes to pain."

"Really?!" Lucy asked, frowning as she asked. "What's that quirk?"

"At first, you'll feel the pain as normal, and it may stay like that for a while, or for a short time, depending on how often you get hurt, the more you get hurt in general, the longer it'll stay," Polly Pain bluntly explained, twiddling her fingers and blushing as she continued. "But after a certain point, that pain won't feel so... well, painful anymore. In fact, it'll even feel pleasant, maybe even addictive."

Lucy flinched, and Polly continued:

"The more you get hurt after that, the more you'll want it. Even if the pain ends with you losing a limb, you'll still feel like you need it."

Lucy shivered and her face slowly turned green, again, with Polly continuing:

"And eventually, you'll be begging the enemy to hit you harder, or even worse, get in range of their attacks just to get hit by them. And the only way you'll stop feeling the addiction, is either to stop being injured for a moment, or death itself-""P-Please stop it! I don't wanna hear anymore!" Lucy exclaimed, pulling her hair as she walked closer to the duo. "Please tell me there's a way to deal with that quirk!"

"Painkillers?" Luan suggested with a laugh.

One quick glare from everybody else, Luan shut up, and Polly finished, "So, yeah, that's why we didn't ask Haiku to come with us."

"Okay then, it makes sense, I guess," Lynn shrugged. "So, who do you think you're gonna be fighting?"

Tabby and Polly smiled, and while they explained how they thought things were going to go, the blonde trio finished talking just in time to notice Lincoln seemed to be bothered about something. Lori gestured to Leni and Carol, and they took Ronnie Anne and Clyde with them and covnersed them close to the tree as Lori sat next to Lincoln.

"Hey there, Linc," Lori greeted in a friendly tone. "Is something on your mind?"

The boy briefly glanced at his eldest sister, then took a deep breath before explaining: "It's Sincoln, or whoever the heck took over my body during the fight with Proto-Lola. You see, I got knocked out, except I wasn't really unconscious; I found myself in some sort of black void with a pair of spades-shaped windows of sort that let me to see the world outside."

Lori nodded and scratched her chin as Lincoln continued, "I heard him talk, saying stuff about himself or something, and as they fought, I could only watch as whoever that was used my body to try and fight Proto-Lola. Keyword being try, of course, but he still gave it a shot. And it was only when I "regained" consciousness that I was in control of my body again. Now, I'm terrified he'll pop up again and use my body to do something horrible! Like enrage a progenitor into fighting me or hurt one of you guys!"

"Hmm... so that's what happened?" Lori petted Lincoln's hair. "Don't worry about it for now, Lincoln. The Proto-Lola fiasco is literally over, and now we just need to focus in training so we're better prepared for when those interdimensional jerks strike again."

"It's just that I can't help but wonder, if I train, will Sincoln be stronger when he comes back?" Lincoln put his hands on his cheeks. "I mean, what if he's in the same situation as me? Stuck in a black void, being unable to do anything but watch as I control my body? If I train, he could learn whatever attacks I learn and-"

"Well then, just stay on the sidelines for now," Lori patted her brother's back. "We'll find a way to give you some training without your evil self or whatever getting in the way. But for now, you can relax. It's perfectly okay for you to do that."

Lincoln smiled. "Thanks for being this understanding, Lori."

Lori hugged her younger brother. "It's the least I can do."

With that said, Ronnie Anne and Clyde reunited with Lincoln, and Leni did the same with Lori as Carol returned to the center of the backyard, just in time for the remaining sisters to reunite with her, and for the elevator on the tree to open up.

"Okay, I already talked with Lori and Leni, and we've come to a conclusion on how to do this thing," Carol clasped her hands. "Listen, you'll be fighting in tag team groups, so it'll be 2 vs 2, and you'll have 1 minute to defeat your opponent."

And then one of the sisters spotted Lisa walking out of her elevator. "Hey, what's she doing out here?!"

Lisa flinched, and Carol quickly went to her side, "Whoa, calm down, girls, I asked Lisa to come out of her laboratory for her safety. I mean, Lori and Leni told me that despite being in her laboratory well underground, Lisa could still be affected by the powers of both the progenitors, and yours as well."

Carol lifted Lisa, then placed her close to the sitting trio. "So, I figured it was a better idea for her to stay at the sidelines with Lincoln, Ronnie, and Clyde, where she could be safe and see what's going on, rather than leave her at her laboratory where she could get hurt."

"I assure you that you won't notice I'm present," Lisa remarked. "I'll remain silent as possible."

"She better keep good on that promise," Lynn sternly growled, then turned back to Carol. "So, who're fighting in the first match?"

 _The first match..._

Luan and Lucy stood side by side on one of the extreme ends of the backyard, with Lola and Lana standing at the opposite side of them. Tabby, Polly, and the remaining sisters rested at the sidelines at the opposite side than the trio and Lisa, watching as the match was about to begin.

"To think we'd be partners in a fight, funny and gloomy, what a combination! Maybe we'll be as close as twins after this fight!" Luan giggles, before turning to Lucy, who was twiddling her fingers nervously. "What do you think, Lucy?"

"Huh? N-no, I wouldn't see this coming either," Lucy clasped one of her hands in the form of a fist, just like Lynn would do. "But hey, just 'cause we never teamed up before doesn't mean we shouldn't give it a shot, right?"

Luan gave her gothic sister a thumbs up. "That's the spirit!"

"So, Lana, do you have any idea on what should we do?" Lola inquired, putting a hand on her twin sister's shoulder. "I was thinking I could try and transform like the fight with my counterpart and-"

"Don't do that!" Lana exclaimed, startling her sister. "I mean, uh... we don't know what's up with that transformation, and Carol hasn't told us anything about it, even though it's because we haven't asked her. It could probably do more harm than good, so don't us it for now, okay?"

"Oh... okay..." Lola scratched the back of her head. "I was suggesting I could use it to gain an advantage over Lucy and Luan, but I want to try and hear you out more often. So, sure, I'll keep the form to myself."

"Yeah, make sure you don't tire yourself out!" Lana replied, maintaining her smile as she internally growled, " _And don't remind me of how I was practically shafted. I mean, I was the one who trained her butt off for the fight, while you were only focused on pageant training. And yet, you get to turn into an angel or whatever, and I can't even get my foot in the door to the same power?! That's totally unfair!_ "

Lana's facade officially ended and she narrowed her eyes and threw a scowl at Lola's direction while the diva was looking elsewhere. And as she maintained the scowl, Lana thought:

" _I know that, in the end, it was your fight, and acting petty about something like this is something you'd do, but..._ " Lana's scowl turned into a saddened frown. " _I just don't like the fact that I trained so hard for an actual fight against a progenitor, and barely got anything for it. It's just... not fair..._ "

And then Carol shouted "And, begin!"

Lana immediately snapped back to reality and dug a hole on the ground, while Lola ran towards both Lucy and Luan at once. However, while Lucy formed a pair of large arms made of light, Luan went to look for Lana through her hole.

Lucy immediately motioned to try and get her light arms to punch or smack Lola, but the girl just dodged the attacks and got close enough to try form a diamond shape and shout:

"Diamond Flash!"

Surprisingly enough, nothing came out, and Lucy and Lola stood still in shock before Lola slapped Lucy, angering the goth enough to make her start a wimp fight with the diva... with her light arms replicating her real arms' movements.

And though the sight baffled everybody else, Luan quickly recomposed herself and continued to look, only for Lana to pop out of a hole right behind Luan, whistling to scare the comedian into looking behind her, only for Lana to go back down and come out of the other hole, before repeating the exact same thing before.

Quickly noticing just looking for Lana wouldn't work, Luan closed her eyes and used her brainpower to think of a pun she could make... And then she shouted:

"Geez, I'm in the mood for _whack-a-hole_!"

A hammer made of energy materialized right on Luan's arms, and she smacked the ground with it so hard, Lana was sent flying out of one of the holes, and Luan got ready to smack Lana with the hammer again before Lola noticed.

"Lana!"

Lola's eyes briefly turned diamond-shaped as she, in quick succession: Pushed Lucy away, dashed straight towards Luan, then extended her arm stub, which had crystal slowly sprout out of it as Lola glew pink. And then Luan's hammer clashed with something, and the force of the impact somehow sent Lana flying away, but not out of the battle arena.

Once Lana recovered from the strike, she opened her eyes and, much to her disbelief, saw Lola had transformed into her angelic state from before, and her arm stub had turned into a crystal arm that ended on a crystal shield. And as everybody looked shocked at the sight, Lola shook a little, before ultimately collapsing, turning back to normal in the process.

"Okay, we'll call it a wrap for now," Carol remarked before helping the plumber get up. "Are you okay, Lana?"

Lana looked at Lola with a stern look. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good to know," Carol stated, adding as Lana narrowed her eyes. "Okay, let's begin the next match!"

 _The second match..._

Like last time, the team of Luna and Lynn stood at one extreme end of the backyard, while the team of Tabby and Polly Pain stood on the opposite end. The latter team simply had their arms folded, while Luna watched Lynn stretch a bit, before doing some minor exercises.

"Dude, we're only going to spar with those two for a minute," Luna pointed out, crouching down to Lynn's height. "Do you really have to do all those stretches?"

Lynn didn't bother pausing her exercises as she answered, "I said it before, and I'll say it again, I like to be prepared just in case anything happens!"

"I get where your coming from, but I still don't think those are necessary, dude," Luna responded, with the athlete just resuming her exercises. "And you're probably gonna tune me out on the subject anyway, so, how about we discuss our battle plan?"

"You want a battle plan? Alright, I got one for you," Lynn stopped the exercising and stretched her arms as she said, "You'll kick your friend's butt, while I kick Polly Pain's butt!"

"Wow, that's genius, Lynn," Luna got up and rolled her eyes. "I'm really surprised, proud even, that you were able to come up with that on your own!"

"Thanks, I may put brawn over brain most of the time, but I'm not stupid," Lynn pointed at her head as she smiled proudly, "I'm smart, but I only use those smarts when I need to. That way my brain won't overload from stress and-"

"I was being sarcastic, dude," Luna cracked her fingers and clenched her fists. "But, if you still think your plan's a good one, then I guess it wouldn't hurt to try it out."

Lynn sternly narrowed her eyes and got ready to leap straight for Polly, all without saying a word. However, Polly simply dashed out of the way, and as soon as Lynn hit the ground, she sprouted her fire wings, and flew up before chasing after Polly, who simply ran around in circles while Luna and Tabby fought inside said circle.

And by "fought," they were really just talking.

"So, Tabby, you're training with your sister's girlfriend right now, that weird for you?" Luna asked as she walked closer to the rocker. "Also, how's Sam doing? Last thing I heard she's-"

"I don't like people who arse around, Luna," Tabby growled with a stern tone. "Specially when they see the necessity to bring up the nutcase that's Sam."

"Okay, you're upset, the brit slang is a dead giveaway," Luna summoned her violet-blue-lavender energy axe. "Now, I can only use this weapon for now, that's not a problem with you, right?"

Tabby narrowed her eyes and summoned a rainbow energy pole.

"Oh, you got an instrument of destruction too," Luna tightened her grip. "That's fine by me!"

The girls swung their energy weapons, and they clashed repeatedly before Tabby made Luna lose her balance, giving her the chance to smack her straight into the flying Lynn. However, Lynn quickly noticed and grabbed Luna's hand, before spinning around and throwing her right back at Tabby.

However, Tabby simply morphed her energy pole into a large baseball bat and then swung it up, hitting Luna and sending her straight into the sky. And as the sight shocked Lynn, she flew straight into Polly, who hit her with an upward kick hard enough to send her up in the sky as well. And then, before the duo could retaliate or even regain their balance, Polly ran to Tabby, swung her around a bit, then launched her upwards as high as the sisters, before the girl made her energy bat grow large enough to smack both Lynn and Luna, sending them plummeting to the ground.

Once that was done, Tabby fell right into Polly's arms, and the tomboy gently put her down before they shared a fist bump, all while Carol ran to Luna and Lynn and checked if they could still fight. And from the looks of it, they were too exhausted to do so.

"Well, I'm going to take the liberty to declare this match over," Carol said as she helped Luna and Lynn get up. "And, I guess those are all the matches we're gonna have today, so-"

"Not yet, Carol," Lori stated, getting everybody's attention. "There's still one match left we need to hold."

"Between who?" Lincoln asked.

Lori and Leni looked at Ronnie Anne and Clyde, and deviously smiled...

 _The third match..._

Like before, Ronnie Anne and Clyde stood at the opposite ends of the backyard, with Carol right in the middle, and the remaining sisters at the sidelines, with Lisa in particular looking quite worried. Shocked, even.

"Of all the schemes you two could've concocted up, this has to be the most insane one yet!" Lisa exclaimed, before turning to Lori and Leni and pointing at them. "Did you seriously think it was a good idea to put up Clyde against Ronnie Anne?! Brains versus brawns!? A nerd against a bully!?"

"I have to agree with Lisa on this one," Lincoln said, giving his eldest sisters a worried look. "I mean, Ronnie Anne is one of the toughest girls I know, and Clyde's... well, he's Clyde!"

Leni narrowed her eyes. "You know, for Clyde's best friend you, like, seem to have a blatant lack of confidence in his ability to win this fight."

"It's not that I don't have faith in him, it's just that I can't help but think this can only end with Ronnie Anne pummeling him before time's up!" Lincoln turned back to the battlefield, and glanced between the confident Ronnie Anne, and the stern Clyde. "I mean-"

"Lincoln, don't assume Ronnie Anne will be the winner" Lori bluntly stated, folding her arms and narrowing her eyes as the boy turned to look at her. "Clyde may be many things, but "helpless" isn't one of those things. And if you really are as close to him as everybody thinks you are, then you should at least literally give him the benefit of the doubt before assuming he's going to be plummeted!"

With that earful over with, Lincoln fell silent and turned back to face the battlefield, silently hoping that Lori was right, and that Clyde wouldn't be hopelessly beaten up by Ronnie Anne.

"Okay you two, since neither Leni nor Lori want you to beat each other up too bad, you have 30 seconds to dish it out. When time's up, I'll end the fight right away, and whoever is still standing by then, wins." Carol looked at her timer and got ready to start it. "And..."

Carol started the timer. "Begin!"

"I hope you got a real good plan, Nerd-O," Ronnie Anne clenched her fist. "'Cause I'm not going to hold back against you!"

Clyde just rolled his eyes and gave Ronnie the "come at me" gesture. And the tomboy gladly obliged, and bolted straight towards the geek, preparing an electric punch as she ran. Once she got close enough, Ronnie threw the punch, but Clyde simply ducked under it, then flipped back before Ronnie managed to process the miss. And as soon as Ronnie noticed this, the boy began running away, with the electric girl in hot pursuit.

"Go Clyde!" Leni shouted.

"Go Ronnie Anne!" Lori yelled.

"Go, uh, both of you!" Lincoln exclaimed, earning a confused look from Lori and Leni. "What? I'm not someone who picks one of his friends over the other."

"Come on, Nerd-O, this isn't really a fight if only one of us is fighting!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed, her words falling in deaf ears as Clyde simply continued to run away. "I know this might be a natural reaction, but can't you try and be brave for once, Nerd-O?!"

"Yeah, Clyde, what the heck are you doing?!" Lynn yelled in exasperation, lifting a fist. "Even if you have no powers, you should still be able to throw a punch or a kick or something! Stop running and actually-"

"Shut up, Lynn!" Polly snapped at the athlete, getting her attention. "This is Clyde's deal, not yours. Don't try to make it about you like all the other fights before!"

Not having any energy left to back talk her friend, Lynn just sat down and continued to watch as Clyde continued to run, and Ronnie Anne, rather than just continue running in circles, charged some lighting spheres and shot them at Clyde, who narrowly dodged one before Ronnie Anne boasted:

"Fine then, you wanna do this long-range?! Here are some projectiles for you, Nerd-O!"

Clyde continued to dodge the lighting balls as Ronnie threw them all around the battlefield, with Leni having to lift her arms and protect everybody else with her shields to avoid anybody getting any more damaged. Eventually, Carol turned back to the fight and exclaimed:

"15 seconds remain!"

Ronnie and Clyde turned to face Carol, but Ronnie quickly turned back to Clyde and leaped high up in the sky, before taking all of her lighting energy and charging it on her fist. She then fell down, and Clyde barely noticed the girl and leaped back before she punched the ground with an electric fist, not only making the ground shake, but also potentially mess up any of Lisa's laboratory's machinery.

"Dang it, not my laboratory!" Lisa exclaimed in disbelief.

Ronnie shook her hand and held it while Clyde stood in place and stared at the tomboy, while taking the moment to catch his breath. He knew that there was no way he could hope to beat Ronnie Anne in a fight, specially when the girl had some experience with her powers already. Not that Clyde didn't have experience with his own powers, but his were of a... different type than Ronnie Anne's.

Speaking of the tomboy, she quickly recovered and shot another lighting ball at Clyde, who barely managed to dodge it before it blew up, sending him flying straight into the tree. And as he slid down, Ronnie Anne ran up to him, grabbed his leg, and then threw him away as she yelled, "No more running away!"

And as soon as Clyde hit the ground, Ronnie Anne cracked her knuckles and charged herself with some lighting energy, before running off to try and attack the geek boy. However, he quickly managed to get up and dodged the girl's incoming attacks, and good thing he did too, because not only were they punches and kicks, but they were lighting punches and kicks.

And eventually, one of those punches connected and hit Clyde in the gut, stunning him long enough to let Ronnie Anne kick him right back to the tree, where he bounced off and hit the ground as Lincoln and Leni exclaimed "Clyde!" with worry. And as soon as Clyde got back up, Ronnie stopped on her tracks and put her hands on her pockets, lighting surging through her body as she and Clyde engaged in a little staring contest. But without the contest.

"You know, I could beat you up right now and call myself the winner of this fight right now, but I need to know something first," Ronnie Anne tilted her head. "Why aren't you showing any of your powers, Nerd-O? You can do that, nobody's going to penalize you for it or something."

Clyde remained silent, and maintained a stern look.

"What's wrong, cat got your tongue?" Ronnie Anne took out a hand and clenched it into a fist, before turning it into a lighting fist. "Will I have to literally punch the answer out of you."

With pure determination, Clyde narrowed his eyes, and practically told Ronnie Anne to "come at me!" with a glare.

The girl smirked and shouted "I'll take that as a yes!" before running straight for Clyde, with the boy just standing there, ready to take the hit as the tomboy came closer and closer.

However, right before the clash, Carol literally opened a portal right in between the duo, came out of it-or at least her upper body did-and she blocked Ronnie Anne's punch effortlessly. And though electricity did surge through Carol for a moment, the girl didn't seem to be bothered by it.

"Time's up, Ronnie Anne," Carol bluntly stated with a stern tone. "It's a tie."

"A tie?!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed as she powered down back to her base form. "Why is it a tie?!"

"I said that whoever was left standing once time ran out would be the winner," Carol fully came out of the portal and closed it with a snap of her fingers. "Since both you and Clyde were both still standing, that means you both won, and wound up with a tie. But hey, look at the bright side: you didn't lose this time!"

Ronnie Anne walked past Carol and went closer to Clyde, until the two were face-to-face. "That was your plan all along, wasn't it? Rather than fight me like normal, you chose to instead waste time until the timer ran out, right?"

Clyde smiled and adjusted his glasses. "It never hurts to use your smarts once in a while, Ronnie Anne."

Ronnie's frown slowly turned into a smile, then said "Nice work" before giving the boy a thumbs up. And then she added, "But remember this, Nerd-O, next time we fight, I'll be the winner, time out or not!"

Clyde shook his head and put his hands on his pockets before he and Ronnie walked back to Lincoln, Lisa, and the blonde trio. Once there, Lincoln got up and hugged Clyde.

"You didn't think I was going to win, did you?" Clyde pondered out loud as he and Lincoln separated.

"I kinda had doubts that you'd be able to survive a fight against Ronnie Anne, in fact Lori and Leni got after me about it!" Lincoln scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepishly. "But you've certainly proved me wrong."

And then Ronnie Anne spoke, "Yeah, I gotta give credit where credit's due, you played smart. I could learn a thing or two from you."

Leni looked elsewhere and whispered, "More, like, a dozen" with a mocking tone, earning a jab in the shoulder from Lori. And then, Lori approached Ronnie Anne.

"Hey, Ronnie, can I ask you something?" the young woman crouched down and put her hands on Ronnie's shoulders. "Listen, I talked with Carol, Leni, Lincoln, and Clyde, and Bobby to an extent, and we literally decided what we're going to do next: Go on a trip to the beach tomorrow. And you're coming with us-"

"To the beach?! Heck yeah!" Ronnie lifted her fist in joy. "I'm gonna pick a swimsuit that'll make any guy that sees me nosebleed all over the place!"

"Hahaha, that's the spirit!" Lori chuckled, then turned serious. "Now, what I literally need from you, by Lincoln and Clyde's request, is to talk to Polly and Tabby, and ask them if they'd like to come with us."

Ronnie Anne glanced at the mentioned duo, then turned to face Lincoln and Clyde, and sternly inquired, "Why do I have to do it?"

"You want people to stop seeing you as just a bully, right?" Lincoln asked, earning a nod from the tomboy. "Well, if you show them you can be friendly without threatening them or anything, I'm sure they'll be willing to give you a chance at befriending them."

"And besides, you can prove to Tabby that you're not so dangerous that she needs to send Sam to intimidate you," Clyde nonchalantly added. "That's also a plus."

Seeing the logic behind the boys' reasoning, Ronnie was released by Lori, then hesitantly walked to meet up with Tabby and Polly, who were on their way out when she arrived.

"Uh, hi, I'm Ronnie Anne," Ronnie greeted, scratching the back of her head. "Lincoln and Clyde wanted to talk to you and-"

"Before you say anything else, I want to apologize for how my sister intimidated you during the beauty pageant business," Tabby stated, scratching the back of her hand. "All I wanted her to do was tell you not to mess with me, but she went overboard, like always."

"Hehe, I know how that feels," Ronnie rolled her eyes. "My mom's just like that too; I ask her to do something for me, and if it involves protecting me in anyway, she'll go the extra mile and beyond. Overprotective parents are a pain."

Tabby glanced at Polly, who looked elsewhere with a concerned look, then turned back to Ronnie Anne and asked, "So, what do you need?"

"Well, Lame-O and Nerd-O told me to talk to you, try get on friendly terms with you," Ronnie glanced at Lincoln and Clyde, who were talking about something. "We three know you probably have better things to do, but at the very least, they asked me to invite you to our trip to the beach tomorrow."

Tabby smiled and exchanged intrigued looks witht Polly, "A trip to the beach, you say?"

"Yeah, Phone-O talked about it with Fashion-O and Carol, and they decided to do that," Ronnie Anne pointed at Lori. "That's Phone-O, by the way."

"Ah yes, the lady that gave Sam a beating. I like her, anybody who can make Sam regret acting like an immature jerk has my respect," Tabby folded her arms and nodded. "We accept the invitation, we don't have work at the poetry club tomorrow-"

"And thank goodness for that too," Polly scratched the back of her head. "I really need a break from Haiku's ear-splitting nagging. It's unbearable!"

"Hehe, I can only imagine," Ronnie waved goodbye and left. "Anyway, I'll go tell those guys about it. See ya tomorrow!"

Polly and Tabby waved goodbye as well, and as soon as Ronnie returned to Lincoln and Clyde, the white-haired boy asked, "What did they say?"

"They're free tomorrow, so they're coming," Ronnie Anne answered, before giving Lincoln a teasing look, "Say, Lame-O, are you sure you'll be able to contain yourself in front of so many girls in swimsuits or bikinis? Your old self had to be a horn dog or something in order for you to breed millions of people into this new world or whatever."

"Please don't remind me about it. And don't worry about me, I have pretty good self-control in general," Lincoln turned to face Carol, Lori, and Leni. "Besides, in the end, I'm different from that "Sincoln" that used to be me. He may have been some creep, but that doesn't mean I have to be the same."

Everybody nodded in agreement as Lincoln finished:

"So tomorrow, we're only going to focus on having fun at the beach!"

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview...**

A chibi version of Tabby and Polly stood at the sides of a blackboard.

"Hi everybody, Tabby and Polly here!" Tabby casually greeted. "We'll be the ones giving you the preview for the next chapter!"

Tabby drew something on the blackboard as Polly folded her arms and stated, "You were probably expecting Carol like last time, but hey, life's unexpected. And she was busy with something, so she asked us to give you a quick summary of what's to come."

Tabby finished her drawing, which depicted Proto-Lana and Lana in the middle of a grassfield, as she spoke:

"So, apparently, the progenitor that looks like the plumber sister has some plans, and will speak with the plumber sister."

Polly erased the drawing and drew a new one, depicting Bun-Bun in his transformed state, and then she spoke:

"There will also be something involving this bunny thing that looks like Lincoln. Maybe he dresses up as a bunny boy, I don't know."

Finally, Tabby erased that drawing, then made a new drawing, depicting Carol comforting a sulking Lana.

"And finally, Carol's gonna share some words with Lana, who seems to be a little bit sad about something. All this will be featured in the next chapter..."

The duo erased the drawing on the blackboard, then wrote the name of the next chapter as they chirped:

"Onwards to the Beach! Proto-Lana's Cryptic Warning!"

Tabby and Polly took a deep breath, went back to their spots, and waved their hands as they bid farewell, "See ya next time!"


	19. Prelude to the Beach

**It's good to be back! Sort of!**

 **This story has been on hiatus for quite a while now, and while I can't promise that stuff like that won't happen again, specially considering how freaking long this story's going to be, I'm going to do my very best to continue working on it to the best of my ability, I promise.**

 **For now, though, since I finished two more chapters for this arc, I decided-with A Hopeful Observer-to post this chapter. Will I post another chapter when I finish two more chapters? Maybe.**

 **And now, to the reviews!:**

 **1) Nobody245: I think we can have a chapter like that eventually, but the story's primarily the main trio (Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, and Clyde) and the sister's growth and journey as they discover their divine nature, so I need to try and mix that along with the eons-old psychopaths bent on stopping their progeny from doing what their evil father wants them to do.**

 **2) To Crawford 1722:**

 **The fic you're looking for is called "Alice in Wonderland," not mine.**

 **3) LoudAutomata16:**

 *** Hey, it had to happen eventually.**

 *** Sam's a d!ck. 'Nuff said.**

 **4) Observant Guest:**

 *** Thank you, I really appreciate the thought. :)**

 *** Yeah, Lisa can only stand at the sidelines and watch for so long.**

 *** I just hope people don't start thinking I'm putting more focus on developing Ronnie Anne over Lincoln or Clyde. That could be troublesome.**

 *** Well, last story had a beach chapter, rather than a beach story arc, so yeah, we'll see soon how things go by.**

 **5) animehero1000:**

 *** True.**

 *** To be fair, they're fairly inexperienced. I assure that when I get the chance, in a way that makes sense story-wise, I will write a fight scene where the main characters actually win.**

 *** Yeah, when he cuts loose...**

 *** Oh boy...**

 **6) ChernoMan:**

 *** I don't think I've written such dialogue, care to point out some examples where the hostility is unwarranted?**

 *** Maybe they're worried that Lisa may do something weird to her? Not like she hasn't tried before.**

 **And now, with great pride, I present you the next chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 19: Onwards to the Beach! Proto-Lana's Cryptic Warning!**

* * *

 _In Another Dimension..._

A portal opened in the sky, which was blue and filled with paw-shaped clouds, and from that portal came out the Blue champion, who flew across the skies to behold the dimension: There were several floating platforms, some filled with pasture that was being eaten by Lana look-a-likes, some other being filled with sleeping animals, and right in the middle was a large building that looked like itt was based after a doghouse.

So Blue flew straight into the doghouse and, once inside, she stopped flying and fell down until she landed in some fancy living room, with a certain someone resting on a dog bed close to a fire, sporting a stern look.

This certain someone was none other, than Proto-Lana."

Blue got on their knees and said, "Mother Lana, did you call me?"

"Yes, Blue, I did call you. I wish congratulate you on fulfilling you assignment," Proto-Lana answered, scratching her ear with her leg like a dog as she continued, "They may have been pests, but working alongside them is worth sticking it to Gremory."

"That said, all you did you assist them, correct?" Proto-Lana glared at Blue. "You didn't reveal your identity or any of my plans?"

Blue flinched, but quickly regained her composure. "I-I simply helped them deal with the Eidoleias. That's all I did, my lady."

Proto-Lana maintained a stern glare as she silently watched Blue, who kept her mouth shut as she waited for her master to finally answer. And after a couple seconds in silence, Proto-Lana smiled and stated:

"Very good."

Blue looked up as her lady continued, "After all, Gremory nearly killed my daughter, something that definitely deserved a punishment. Though looking back at it, what you did was pretty minor anyway, it would've made no difference if you had gone there or not."

Proto-Lana narrowed her eyes and frowned, "Still, continue to avoid involvement with her, unless I tell you otherwise, got it?"

"Y-Yes, my lady," Blue nervously answered. "Is that all you need from me?"

"Not quite, I need you to call up Liam and Skippy," Proto-Lana stated, smirking as she added, "I have a plan that I want to try out, and I'd like to set it up while _he's_ still asleep."

Blue tilted her head. "You mean..."

 _New Reality, Lincoln's bedroom..._

The boy snored a little before he found himself in a rather familiar situation. He was now in the middle of a black void, Lincoln found himself in the same situation as the dream he had about Proto-Lola before. However, rather than seeing a crown, he instead saw a red baseball hat materialize out of nowhere, and the whole landscape turned blue before the vision began.

In this vision, Lincoln was once again seeing through Proto-Lincoln, or Sincoln's, eyes. Instead of being in a white room, Sincoln was apparently in an open field, with a giant temple on the far end with the symbols of the castes hovering above it. He was also close nearby to a pond, where he could see his reflection: He looked exactly like Lincoln, no orange sclera or spades pupils present.

And to Sincoln's side was none other than Proto-Lana, who also looked exactly like Lana, only she had blue sclera and paw-shaped pupils, the normal look for her in the present. The boy didn't get a lot of time to think about it, however, since Sincoln tried to put a hand on her shoulder, only for the proto-plumber to literally bark at him, then growl in anger.

"Aw, come on, I just wanted to pet you!" Sincoln replied, before trying to reach for Proto-Lana's cheeks. "I thought you loved being petted."

"Not by the likes of you!" Proto-Lana snapped before trying to bite Sincoln's hand in two, with the prototype narrowly dodging the bite. "You really think I'm in the mood to let you do anything after what you did to Lola?!"

"Aw, come on, all I did was take her voice and implant it on her successor," Sincoln casually answered. "Luna gave her a new voice afterwards! Why are you still upset about it?"

"Because you did it without her consent!" Proto-Lana snapped, narrowing her eyes. "As you said before, Luna had access to several voices, and yet you chose to go right for the source, even as she screamed begging for you to stop!"

"I told that brat to be quiet," Sincoln rolled his eyes, then sneck a little stroking under Proto-Lana's neck. "Calm down, will you? I'm the one true god as dictated by the maker, everything I do will work out in the end! Don't worry about it, okay?"

Proto-Lana started growling, and her pupils started to grow into slits, while her canines grew bigger.

"See? You're liking the stroking!" Sincoln chirped as he stroke harder.

Proto-Lana shook, and she leaped for Sincoln with her claws bared just as the vision ended, with Lincoln waking up and hyperventilating afterwards. He clutched his chest and took several deep breaths before he noticed that he was back in the original reality, and that Bun-Bun was looking at him with a worried look.

"Are you okay, Master Lincoln?" Bun-Bun telepathically inquired, tilting his head as he added, "Do you need me to do something? Get you some water? A massage?"

"N-No, Bun-Bun, it's fine, I just... had another vision of my other self, when the original reality still existed," Lincoln frowned. "And, being honest, I'm starting to get the feeling he was quite the jerk... was he?"

Not wanting to scare his master any further, Bun-Bun somberly "scratched" the back of his head and telepathically answered, "You shouldn't ask me questions like that, Master Lincoln. Specially since you still need to sleep, it's still midnight."

Lincoln checked his clock, and saw Bun-Bun was right, it was straight up midnight still.

"I wish I wasn't the only one who had these nightmares," Lincoln sighed as Bun-Bun tilted his head in confusion. "Maybe then, I wouldn't feel so bad."

"You're not the only one who has these visions, Master Lincoln," Bun-Bun shook his head and shrugged. "At the very least, you're not the only one who has bad dreams about the progenitors."

Lincoln flinched and turned to face Bun-Bun, "Who else has these sort of dreams?!"

 _At the Twins' bedroom..._

Lola slept peacefully on her bed, while Lana moved left and right, looking rather uneasy as she shivered. She was being watched by the Loud pets, with Geo looking particularly worried, as well as the rest of Lana's reptillian pets.

As for what was going on in Lana's mind, the girl found herself in a large... somewhere, with a blue sky, and a seemingly endless open field, with some strange canine and feline creatures, which also had humanoid features to them. Like faces.

The plumber took several deep breaths, clutching her stomach with her right hand as she scanned her surroundings, trying to calm herself down despite being seemingly trapped in another world.

And then a familiar face appeared, riding on top of a bunch of mice that reminded her of Claire, for some reason. And this face was none other, than Proto-Lana.

Lana narrowed her eyes and hissed, "You."

"Yes, I know I'm not the person you'd like to see right now, but I couldn't help but notice something from my dimension," Proto-Lana narrowed her eyes. "I noticed that you seem to be... upset about something. Angry, even. And that's not a good thing."

"None of your business!" Lana growled. "Why would you even care how I feel anyway?!"

"Because not only am I your mother, but those who allow themselves to be consumed by their hatred can fall prey to Lynn's clutches, and be turned into mindless berserkers who are completely under her control. I don't want that to befall any of my or your children, Hayyel," Proto-Lana folded her arms. "Now, let me ask you, Hayyel, is your anger related to your twin sister Jophiel?"

Lana blushed and looked away.

"Listen, my child, as someone who has a twin sister, I know what it feels like to feel like you'll be overshadowed despite your best efforts. Specially since I've had eons to experience this sort of insecurity," Proto-Lana narrowed her eyes and hissed, "However, as a maternal figure, I won't allow you to treat me with disrespect just becuase you feel upset. Do you understand?"

"I do, but what makes you think I'll treat one of the people who nearly killed me and my sisters with respect!?" Lana snapped, with Proto-Lana barely flinching. "And even if you were my mom, I don't remember meeting you before the beating you gave us. As far as I know, you could've been an abusive jerk!"

"So, that desperate bastard blocked your memories as well?" Proto-Lana shook her head. "He really must've wanted to forget about the past."

"Stop talking about Lincoln like he's a different person! And get out of my head already!" Lana snapped, before pointing at herself. "We already had a lot to take in our plate this past week, and today we're only going to focus on having fun at the beach! I'm not in the mood to return to the whole "old reality" business!"

Proto-Lana scowled and gritted her teeth. "Sweetie, I have murdered entire clans of alternate versions of yourself and your sisters for speaking to me in the disrespectful tone you're using. Tear them apart, eat them alive, send my hounds to kill them, all things they earned because they thought feeling pissy about something meant they could speak to a fallen god with disrespect and get away with it!"

The prototype plumber leaned closer until she and Lana were face-to-face. "And believe me, after what happened at the beauty pageant, you're not the only one who's pissed off."

Lana and Proto-Lana maintained stern eye contact, with neither of them reacting as time slowly passed. And then, Proto-Lana sighed and separated from the plumber.

"However, you're lucky this time, since I don't have time, nor interest, in meddling in your affairs for now," the prototype folded her arms behind her back and walked away. "But I'll be fair and give you a warning: Once an opening presents itself, I'll make sure you regret acting the way you did in this meeting. And believe me, Hayyel... I love to take my sweet time savoring my children's regrets."

Finally getting tired of her counterpart's vagueness, Lana clenched her fists and ran towards the prototype, her vision of the world slowly becoming redder until it became pure red. And then, Lana hit something solid and woke up, immediately returning her to reality.

The plumber looked around and saw the Loud pets, her own pets, and even Lola looking at her with worry. And as Lola helped her get up, the tomboy noticed that it was already day, with the sunlight entering through the window.

"Lana, are you okay? I came back here because I wanted you to come see something, and then I heard you hit the ground!" Lola said, checking to see if her sister had any particular bruises, "What happened?"

"It was the other me, she appeared in my dream... but, that's not something I want to go into right now," Lana put a hand on her head and took a deep breath. "What did I miss?"

Lola lifted her arm and chirped, "Just the most amazing thing I've seen today!"

Lana raised an eyebrow. "Why? What happened?"

"Yesterday, Lincoln and Lisa, and to an extent Ronnie Anne and Clyde, found out something amazing about Bun-Bun!" Lola grabbed her twin's arm and dragged her to the living room as she continued, "He can transform into another form by the push of a button and... well, you just have to look at it yourself!"

Once the duo arrived, Lana was pushed past the surrounding mob of sisters, and met Bun-Bun, who was in his servant form, face-to-face. And the duo remained like that as the other sisters commented about the situation.

"So, you press the spades symbol on his shirt, and he turns into this, right?" Luna scratched her chin and backed away. "I don't know dude, did Lisa have something to do with this?"

"Yeah, after all, Lisa's the kind of character to get involved in bunny business," Luan quipped, laughing to herself before adding, "And besides, it wouldn't be the first time she's tried something like this."

"I know it may be hard to believe, but it's true: I gave him to Clyde, he pushed the button-symbol-thing, and Bun-Bun transformed just like how you saw him do a minute ago!" Lincoln crouched down and put a hand on Bun-Bun's shoulder. "I'm not sure if he can do anything else besides talking and moving on his own, but it's still something, right?"

"Well he can talk, right?" Lynn said before looking sternly at the toy bunny. "Does that mean he can answer questions? 'Cause if he can, I got one: Did Lisa have anything to do with you being able to transform? And why do you even need to transform?"

"First, he can only answer specific questions, so don't think you can just ask anything," Lincoln threw a stern glare at Lynn, then turned to Bun-Bun with a friendly look and tone. "Answer her whenever you're ready, Bun-Bun."

The living toy took a deep breath, then stated:

"All Bun-Buns like myself are made with the ability to transform from our toy modes, which are mostly used just in case our owners are bored or need companion, to our servant mode, where we can wash dishes, make our owners' beds, or even fight for them, and other things that would be impossible for us in toy mode!"

The sisters all fell silent at the answer, mostly due to the fact that there was an answer in the first place. Seeing Lincoln's toy bunny transform and be alive in general was already hard enough to believe, but having him actually answer was outright unfathomable.

"Okay, that was unexpected," Lucy remarked, then nervously asked, "So, how much do you know about the stuff that's a mystery to us? The progenitors, their powers, stuff like that?"

Bun-Bun remained silent.

"I think that's a question he can't answer," Lola raised her arm and, with her eyes turning into diamonds, she asked, "Can I have my own Bun-Bun?!"

"Anybody can get their Bun-Bun, we're mostly made to be servants to everbody else, even the casteless," Bun-Bun shrugged. "It's earning, let alone making, a Bun-Bun that's the problem. You can't just sew a bunny plush toy and expect to make a sentient, working Bun-Bun out of it."

"So, you're basically Lincoln's toy servant?" Lana suddenly asked, frowning as she added, "How long have you been alive?"

"Since the very beginning: I stood in Lincoln's side from the instant the original reality was made, to it's fall, and finally to the birth of the new reality, right up to this very moment," Bun-Bun cheerfully answered, only pause then add with a concerned tone, "Due to troublesome circumstances, however, I can't tell you anything about what I saw, or even know, about the original reality right now."

"Of course you can't, that would only make our job even easier," Lynn growled, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "So, does anybody else in our reality or whatever have Bun-Buns too?"

"While that's a question I can't fully answer, I can give you a little piece of the truth," Bun-Bun shrugged. "Yes, other people also have Bun-Buns. I wouldn't try going after them, though, because they'd be even more secretive than I am, and I'm already hiding quite a lot from you."

The rest of the sisters started swarming Bun-Bun with questions, and soon afterwards, Lana glanced at Lola with a frown before going back upstairs, which Lola soon noticed. Once she reached their bedroom, Lola saw Lana sitting on the ground, right in front of Charles, Geo, Cliff, and Waltz, while her other pets surrounded them.

"Okay, guys, give me a second to charge my energy," Lana said, taking a deep breath before adding, "I want to make sure I'm fully ready before I try anything."

She exposed her right palm, which held her birthmark: A paw with the first segment being red, the second segment being grey, and the final segment being an orange spades symbol. She closed her eyes, and focused her energy, making her birthmark glow by the time she opened her eyes again.

"Alright, now we can try this out," Lana turned to Charles and leaned closer to him. "When I count three, I want you to speak, got it, Charles? One... two... three!"

Charles barked, but he didn't talk. At least, not in a way Lana understood, making her worry. "Okay, let's try again: One... two... three!"

The dog barked again, and Lana still couldn't understand him. To try and comfort her, the other pets meowned, chirped, or did hamster noises, hoping Lana would understand them, but sadly enough, she couldn't understand anything.

The plumber sighed and put a hand on her cheek, prompting Charles to walk up to her and lick her cheek, causing her to giggle before gently pushing him away.

"Listen, guys, I'm happy you want to help me, but right now, I need some time alone," Lana petted Charles as she turned to face her pet snakes and reptiles. "That includes you guys too. So go to another room, and try not to cause a ruckus, okay?"

The animals nodded, and they all immediately left the room, with Lola entering soon afterwards. Being slightly used to an animal-infested room, to the point it could be considered a petting zoo, the room felt so... empty, with only Lana and herself inside, a feeling that only became more prominent as Lola scanned her surroundings and walked to her twin sister.

"Carol told me a while back that I could talk with animals," Lana sighed, startling Lola in the process. "I tried it before, but it didn't work. She told me I just needed more training, and I tried it again to see if it worked."

Lola tilted her head. "Did it work?"

Lana somberly looked away and muttered, "No."

"W-Well, don't feel so bad about it, sis!" Lola put a hand on Lana's shoulder. "Just because you can't speak to them right now doesn't mean you'll never be able to do it! And besides-"

"Lola, I need some time alone, and believe it or not, you being here with me doesn't count," Lana sternly answered. "I'm not in a good mood either, and I don't want to snap at you, so please... leave."

Lola frowned. "Are you sure?"

Lana silently nodded and looked away, giving Lola enough time to think about it. And, seeing her sister definitely needed space, Lola got up and walked towards the door, but not before adding:

"By the way, I wanted to ask you if you had everything packed for the beach, but, uh, I'll ask you later."

Lola took a deep breath, then waved goodbye as she left the room. As soon as Lola got out, Lana scratched her chin and thought:

" _Now that she mentioned it, I wonder how Ronnie Anne and Clyde are getting ready for the beach._ "

 _Meanwhile, at the Casagrande Bodega..._

A certain Casagrande was working at the bodega, cleaning the floors and organizing the shelves. This certain someone was Carlota Casagrande, who wore a white apron over her normal clothes, and sported a stern look as she finished setting up a shelf. She did this just in time for a particular trio to enter: A very small boy wearing a green bike helmet, a guy wearing a baseball cap with a chess pattern, and a... guy? wearing a light blue hoodie.

Carlota recognized these three as Ronnie Anne's friends from the big city, Sameer, Casey, and Nikki respectively. And though she remained indifferent as they entered, she quickly grew exasperated when she heard one of them whistle, then add soon afterwards:

"Hey babe, you're looking quite fine today!"

Carlota threw an angry glare at the trio, and noticed the one wearing a flirty look was Nikki, though it also had shades of it being a playful one. And as soon as the trio went on to buy something, Carlota turned to face Mrs. Santiago, who walked nearby, and caught her attention.

"Aunt Maria, that's the fifth customer that's come into the bodega and tried to flirt with me! And the second female customer for that matter!" the fashionista whined, with Maria rolling her eyes in response. "Do I really have to take over Bobby's shift?!"

Maria folded her arms and sternly answered, "Well, I would consider giving you a different punishment, if it wasn't for the fact that you put the collar on my poor Ronalda's neck, despite knowing how dangerous it was! Not to mention how you nearly hurt her during the beauty pageant fiasco!"

"Ugh, this again? Look, I did what you would've done anyway, try to find a way to protect Ronnie Anne," Carlota put a hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes. "I'm not the one that wanted the collar, you did! And the beauty pageant? I will own that, but you're just as much as fault as me for this mess!"

"Carlota, stop it," Maria put a hand over the fashionista's mouth. "You're going to stay here and cover Bobby's shift until it's over. Have I been clear?"

The teenager slowly nodded with a furious look, and Maria uncovered her mouth and left soon afterwards. And as soon as she was alone, Carlota took a deep breath and pondered out loud:

"Ugh, could this day get any worse?"

And then Ronnie Anne kicked open the door, "Carlota!"

Carlota glanced at Ronnie Anne, and took a deep breath before whispering, "Goddammit" to herself. Next thing she knew, she and Ronnie Anne were back up at the apartment, at Carlota's bedroom.

"Okay, I'm going to be blunt about this and before you ask no, this isn't about our fight at the pageant," Ronnie gave Carlota the pointer finger, "I need you to give me the skimpiest, hottest, sexiest swimsuit, bikini, or whatever beachwear you got!"

Carlota slapped Ronnie Anne's hand away. "No."

A moment of silence later, Ronnie Anne asked, "Please?"

Carlota folded her arms. "No."

Ronnie clasped her hands and put up a nervous smile. "Pretty please?"

Carlota narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "Pretty no."

Ronnie stomped the ground, "Why not?!"

"Ronnie Anne, I may have a smokin' hot body, but I'm not someone who likes to wear skimpy or "hot" clothing, the attention it brings me makes me uncomfortable," the teenager sighed. "And besides, even if I had that kind of swimsuit, it's probably something I've already given away since I don't keep clothes I can't wear anymore."

Then she grabbed and pulled her apron. "Besides, I'm doing Bobby's shift at the bodega right now! I can't waste time helping you look for one! I have to get back before Aunt Maria snaps at me! Again!"

And with that said, Carlota stomped her way back to the bodega, leaving Ronnie Anne alone to put a hand on her cheek and try to think of some alternative. And soon enough, she got an idea.

"Mom's closet!"

 _Meanwhile, at the McBrides Household..._

Clyde was checking his closet for any beach trunks he could take with him to the beach, just in time for his parents to arrive and notice what he was doing. The boy noticed their arrival as well, but he just glanced at them before going back to his closet.

"Clyde, are you sure you _have_ to go to the beach with your friends? Especially the Louds?" Howard asked, clasping his hands as his husband patted his back. "I mean, the beach is dangerous. Shark attacks, bullies hitting you with sand, a giant tentacle monster rising from the-!"

Howard quickly covered his husband's mouth. "What he's trying to say, Clyde, is that a lot of bad things could happen at the beach."

"I'm gonna be fine, dads, there's nothing you need to worry about," Clyde replied, focusing solely on his clothes. "I saved up as much equipment as I could, I'm going with some trustworthy friends, and if anything bad happens, I'll be sure to call you, okay?"

"Are you sure you didn't forget anything?" Harold folded his arms. "Sunscreen? Spare swimsuits? Towels?"

"I got all of that accounted for, after all, I was taught how to stay well organized by the best," Clyde took out a yellow-blue swim trunk and showed it to his dads. "Say, do you think I should bring these beach trunks?"

The men exchanged looks, then Howard turned back to Clyde and stated, "Harold and I need to talk about something first," before the couple left the room. And as soon as they did, Clyde realized something.

"Now that I think about it, I may need to bring some pepper spray just in case Ronnie Anne tries something," the boy scratched his chin and put the trunks on his bed. "Sure, I'm guessing she's honestly changed about her bully ways, but she's still quite a wildcard regardless."

The boy left his bedroom, and walked towards his parents' room door, only to suddenly hear Howard shout:

"You almost blurted out the secret!"

Clyde raised an eyebrow, and leaned closer to the keyhole, where he saw both his parents having an argument.

"You know that Clyde's not ready to find out about our ties with the organization!" Harold exclaimed. "Heck, we even took classes to learn how not to divulge any sensitive information!"

"I'm sorry, Hare-Bare, it's just that whenever I get too scared or nervous about it, I don't watch what I'm saying," Howard scratched the back of his head. "B-But hey, at least you stopped me before I said too much!"

"Yeah, but Imagined if I hadn't been there, he would've found out about what lies deep in the ocean," Harold folded his arms behind his back and faced away from Howard. "And then, he may start wondering what the organization is, why we're working for it-"

Then Howard inquired, "What happened to his mother?"

Harold paused and looked at the ground, while Clyde immediately backed away and leaned against the wall nearby, quietly catching his breath as he heard Howard reply:

"That's not something we talk about this house, and you know. Let's just... contact headquarters and let them know we're coming."

With that said, Clyde frowned and looked at the ground, before rubbing his forehead, trying to process what he just heard.

 _Back at the Loud house..._

Carol followed Lola to her and Lana's bedroom, with Carol eyeing Lola's arm stub as she asked, "So, how's your arm stub doing?"

"That doesn't matter right now!" Lola and Carol stopped at the door and the diva "pointed" at it with her stub. "Lana's upset, and I need you to talk to her, see if you can get her to open up!"

"What?!" Carol folded her arms. "Why me? Why not Lincoln?"

"Lincoln is usually the go-to person for this stuff, but he has enough on his plate what with being a literal deity and everything; and I can't ask my other sisters 'cause I'm afraid they may make things worse," Lola put a hand on her hip and rolled her eyes. "And I can't go there myself, because Lana knows me well enough to know I would tattle about whatever she tells me. Heck, I know myself well enough to not even be in denial about it!"

Lola then "pointed" at Carol with her stub. "But you and her seem to share a connection. At least, I get the feeling you do, and you're the last remaining person I can ask for help. So please, go talk to her."

Carol glanced at the door, turned back to Lola, and sighed before she went in, with Lola leaving just in case Lana felt her presence. Once inside, Carol closed the door, and Lana growled afterwards:

"I heard you and Lola."

Carol flinched and Lana continued:

"You have to wonder if this house is magic or something: Sometimes, the walls are thin enough to overhear people talking on the outside, and at other times, they're so thick you can't hear a thing. Anyway, yeah I'm upset, but it's nothing anybody needs to worry about. I just need some time alone."

Once the shock wore off, Carol walked to Lana's side, crouched down, and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Lana, I can easily see that you're angry about something that won't be fixed by spending time alone," Carol frowned as Lana looked away. "I know that, because I once felt really upset about something that was actually kinda petty, but for the sake of you not snapping at me, let's say that you have a legitimate reason to be angry. I need to know what's bothering you in order to help you deal with it-"

"It's Lola!" Lana snapped, getting up just to stomp the ground. "And her weird angel transformation or whatever!"

Carol took a step back and blinked twice. "You mean, her "Jophiel" form?"

"Yeah, that form of hers," Lana looked at the ground and calmed down a little. "I mean, I'm as happy as everybody else that we won against her prototype counterpart, but... as soon as I remembered what this meant, I just..."

Carol walked closer to Lana and put a hand on her shoulder, prompting the tomboy to give her a worried look, before looking away and continuing:

"Look, Lola and I are twin sisters, that's obvious. But, we're identical twins, the kind that look way too much like ople find ways to compare us so they can tell the difference. And in a family as big as mine, you can bet there's a lot of comparisons. And... I just remembered that, if we don't do something to stand out, we could be easily confused for each other... and being considered just a tomboy version of Lola is the last thing I want to happen."

"But you and Lola are very different from each other, you're not identical at all!" Carol stated, trying to comfort the girl. "And besides, what makes you think people will start seeing you as a tomboy version of your sister?"

"When I was walking back home after getting angry at Lola, I met a friend of mine, one that I have a crush on. His name's Skippy, he grabbed my hat, handed it back to me... and he called me "Lola." Lana put a hand on her cheek and held back tears as she continued. "We've been hanging out for a while, I even helped him with something he was working on, and he still called me by my sister's name!"

"W-Well... dang it..." Carol sighed. "Lana-"

"And it's even worse now that she has her angel form! That'll just make her stand out even more once she learns how to use at will!" Lana snapped, pulling her pigtails as she ranted, "And like Proto-Lola said, I'm only just knocking on the door of my true power, which I assume is the angel form Lola got, and I spent some days training with you! What did Lola do?! She refused to train with us, she practiced for the beauty pageant, and then she got the form after absorbing a ton of energy or something! It just makes it seem like the training I did with you was... pointless!"

Carol's eyes widened, and she heard a voice that sounded like Lori say "pointless" in a disappointed tone, until she narrowed them, gritted her teeth, then forced Lana to look at her as she stated:

"Listen up, Lana, you can be as pessimistic about this as much as you want. Hell, you can even try to claim that what Lola did proves that training means nothing! But let me tell you something, little missy, training is never pointless! Specially when you fail to take into account several things that you did after training with me!"

Lana shivered. "W-What are you-"

"You and Lynn, two of the sisters that trained with me, were the very reason that Lola managed to survive long enough to try and reach her angel form in the first place! If you hadn't been there, and had stalled long enough to help her, she could've lost more than just an arm! She could've even died!"

Carol leaned closer to Lana as she continued, "And her angel form? Do I need to remind you she can't use it for more than a moment or two?! Sure, she got a taste, but the fact is she can't maintain it for long makes that power next to useless!"

She then grabbed Lana by the neck of her shirt and pulled her closer to her. "And you, despite not having said power, can at least use your castes' abilities on your own! How did Lola even figure out how to do anything beyond the "Diamond Flash" during the fight, anyway!?"

"I... k-k-kinda forgot to ask her," Lana shakily answered, trying even harder to hold back her tears.

It was in that statement that Carol realized how she was acting, so she released the tomboy and allowed her to run off to the corner and catch her breath.

"S-Sorry, Lana, I... I couldn't control myself just then," Carol twiddled her fingers. "You saying that our training was... pointless, brought back some bad memories and... s-sorry..."

Lana caught her breath some more, and she sighed, "It's alright, I guess I sorta deserve it for being a downer. I, uh, should start checking if I did pack everything for the beach."

"I could help you check your stuff," Carol suggested, petting Lana's head as she added, "And before you say something like "You don't have to do it if you don't want to," I legitimately want to help you."

Lana took a deep breath before smiling and nodding. And as the duo went to check that stuff, Lola saw the situation through the keyhole, and leaned against the wall before sliding to the ground as she sighed in relief:

"It worked."

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview**

"Hi everybody, Lana here!"

The preview started with the vanzilla arriving, with the Louds and Carol coming out before it showed scenes at the beach: Lucy approaching Margo, Luan and Giggles meeting, and Luna meeting with Sam, Polly Pain and Tabby, among other scenes.

"Looks like we're going to Aloha Beach for some fun in the sun, but I can't help but feel something's off."

Some more scenes were shown: Lana waited outside a dresser, Lori and Leni talked while looking at Lincoln, and a brief moment showed Leni hugging Clyde before it then showed him looking at the guy in the distance.

"Meh, It's probably nothing! The copycats wouldn't attack so quickly after the pageant, right?"

This was followed by Lucy looking worried at Margo, Haiku briefly looking upset with Lucy by her side, Sam sternly looking at Tabby as she said something, and Luna nervously walking to someone.

"Right?"

Then, Lola was shown crystallizing her arm for a moment... Before the crystal crumbled, turning it back to normal.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

She was then joined by Claire, who talked with her as the title was said:

"Welcome to Aloha Beach, Let the Beachtime Fun Begin!"

Then, Lola noticed Claire's birthmark and asked about something, upsetting Claire.

"Don't miss it!"

Finally, Lola followed Claire, stopping at a rocky place as the preview ended.


	20. Aloha Beach

**Yup, another chapter out of the blue. I managed to finish writing another chapter this week, so I figured hey, let's throw the readers a bone and update again, for the last time in possibly a while.**

 **Also, because of difficulties regarding writing on the phone, I may not have managed to find all the little errors before I could fix them, so A Hopeful Observer, if I didn't fix any mistakes in here, I'm really sorry.**

 **But now, to the reviews!:**

 **1) Nobody245: It feels good to be back. :)**

 **2) animehero1000:**

 *** I dunno, I'm just happy we're finally getting _some_ content.**

 *** You know what they say: Beach + at least one good looking girl = fanservice XD**

 *** Don't keep your hopes up, none of the progenitors are are winning "Mother of the Year" awards anytime soon.**

 *** Yup, feels good to be back, and summer's okay.**

 **3) LoudAutomata16:**

 *** Yeah, those visions happen once per arc I think. Or maybe more than once.**

 *** I dunno, you gotta do something or be very noteworthy to earn a Bun-Bun. Although, the twins do look like they wouldn't mind having one of them...**

 **4) Observant Guest:**

 *** Yup, they don't like each other very much.**

 *** Just remember: Black and white are just colors, nothing else.**

 *** Yeah, Ronnie's friends. Can you guess what caste they belong to before the next arc?**

 *** Sorry for the ballsy question, but could you maybe check out my "Wands of Destiny" story when you get the chance? I'd like your detailed reviews over there, and it is updating more frequently than this story right now, so you'll get something to read in the meantime.**

 **5) Chernoman:**

 *** I see... I guess I could try being more careful in the future.**

 *** How am I doing Lynn justice, exactly?**

 *** Simply put, bigger than the number of girls Lincoln's been shipped with in the fandom. Yeah, try to wrap your head around that.**

 *** Yeah, poor guy needs to find some answers after what he heard. After beachtime, of course.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 20: Welcome to Aloha Beach! Begin the Beachtime Fun!**

* * *

 _Parking Lot of Aloha Beach..._

The vanzilla parked in the closest spot that would lead the Louds into the beach, and soon afterwards, Lori opened the driver's door and stepped out alongside Leni. They both wore bikinis and had towels wrapped around their shoulders, colored light blue for Lori and turquoise for Leni.

"Welp, here we literally are everybody!" Lori exclaimed as she reached for the passenger's seat's door. "Now, I'm going to open the door, and I want you all to come out calmly and in order, okay?"

As soon as Lori opened the door, however, Lincoln, Luna, Luan, and most of the younger sisters bolted out and ran off towards the beach, all on their swimsuits and with their towels at hand. The only exceptions were Lana, who remained on her seat looking at the ground, and Carol, who sat right next to Lana and for some reason was still in her normal clothes.

"Heya, lovebirds, it's, like, time for you to step out," Leni said in a motherly tone, gesturing Lana and Carol to come out. "And Carol, please head to the dressing room and change as soon as you can, okay?"

Lana and Carol flinched and blushed at being called "lovebirds," and they exchanged surprised looks before the got out together and walked towards the changing room. With that done, Leni was soon faced with a stern glare from Lori.

"Lovebirds?" Lori repeated with a stern tone. "Are you literally for real, Leni?!"

"Aw, come on, Lori, you have to, like, admit that those two totes have a special connection!" Leni answered, keeping a cheerful tone as she added, "And besides, after seeing so many bizarre pairings in other dimensions, Carol and Lana are a refreshing combination, don't you think?"

"I-I guess, but still, lovebirds is something you only call a pair of people, or more people, who are in love with each other!" Lori stated, putting her hands on her hips as she added, "Are you literally implying you think Carol and Lana are in love with each other?!"

Leni paused, and shrugged, "It wouldn't be the weirdest pairing we've seen before-"

"That's not the issue!" Lori snapped. "I mean, Lana's our sister, _and_ she's barely six! Carol, meanwhile, is almost triple her age, and she's... Carol! I just don't think a relationship between those two could work."

Leni folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. "Are you saying that our little Lana can't hold a romantic relationship with someone she loves?"

"Please don't call her "our little Lana", you know she hates it when either of us calls her that!" Lori put her hands on her hips. "And that's not literally what I'm saying! I'm just saying that with the way things are going, and how eager the progenitors can be to screw us over, trying to chase after a romantic relationship just doesn't seem like a good idea right now."

Leni tilted her head as Lori continued, "A-And besides, bringing up that topic right in front of them is going to make them anxious and worried and whatever! And we're here to relax! So please, don't bring that up near them or anybody else for that matter!"

"Alright then, if it, like, calms you down, I won't bring it up," Leni turned and walked towards the beach, before pausing and giving her sister a flirty look. "Now, how about you get going so you can put some sunscreen on my back?"

Lori blushed and rolled her eyes before following Leni into the beach, with the fashionista taking the moment to ask. They walked past the dressing rooms in the process, where Lana leaned against the wall near the door where Carol was changing.

"I'm almost done, Lana, I promise!" Carol said from inside. "And also, you don't have to stay here and wait for me to come out."

"Actually, Carol, I would like to spend some time with you before going off to do my own thing," Lana looked at the sky as the door opened. "And I wanna see what you picked for a-"

Just then, Carol walked out, and as soon as Lana turned to face her, the tomboy flinched and took a step back as her cheeks turned completely red.

As for the Louds, they settled for at least five pairs of chairs under large umbrellas, and Lincoln took a couple steps forward and took a deep breath before speaking:

"Okay, it might be a while before Clyde and Ronnie Anne arrive, so until then, how about we separate and have-"

By the time the boy turned around, however, his sisters had already dispersed, besides Lori and Leni who were resting on the umbrellas shadow.

"-Fun?" Lincoln finished before rubbing his forehead. "Well, I guess I should've seen this coming."

Lincoln turned back to the shore and sat down. "Well, I guess the only thing left for me to do is try have fun on my own."

And as the boy tried to make a sand castle using only his hands, at Leni and Lori's spot, Leni saw Lincoln all alone and frowned, while Lori briefly glanced at him before she took out a magazine and started reading it.

"Poor Linky, he has nobody to spend time with," Leni sighed. "Sure, Ronnie Anne and Clyde could, but they might not be here for a while..."

"I know he seems lonely, Leni, not hard to see that," Lori sighed, lowering her magazine to reveal her concerned look. "Even so, I'm not really sure if he'll want company right now."

Lori looked at Lincoln building the sand castle, which was looking relatively decent so far. "I talked with him during the training session, and he literally told me he was scared about his old self, Sincoln. He's worried about what will happen if he takes him over again, and if he trained, would that mean Sincoln would grow stronger too."

Lori put the magazine down and put a hand on her cheek. "Plus, there's the fact that besides being literally an asshole, Sincoln is a gargantuan pervert. Lincoln may not see the female sex as a bunch of sex toys he can play with until they break, but Sincoln does, and if he found out about that now... let's just say, he wouldn't take it well."

"But Lincoln's in control of his body now, with Sincoln, like, locked deep inside his mind!" Leni argued, leaning a bit closer to Lori with a hopeful smile. "Even if Sincoln's... urges started getting to him, they would be minimal at best!"

"Considering how literally smokin' hot we are, it might be best if we remain at the sidelines and wait 'till Ronnie Anne and Clyde give him company," Lori took out a pair of sunglasses and put them on. "After all, Sincoln reacts more strongly towards fully adult bodies rather than those still in development."

Leni, seeing logic in her sister's argument, backed down and rested on her chair, watching Lincoln and his sand castle moments before they were hit by an ocean wave, causing the castle to crumble into wet sand. The boy just shrugged it off and started a new castle.

 _Meanwhile, with Lynn..._

The jock walked around the beach, taking a look around to see if she could find an activity she could play on her own. And for the most part, the athlete failed to find anything that interested her, until she saw a certain event taking place.

Right in the distance there were two girls playing a volleyball match, and though she couldn't see who was the other girl, Lynn did recognize the dark-skinned girl, wearing a green one piece with her hair tied in a poofy bun: That was Kiki, her former teammate.

And then Kiki noticed Lynn in return, prompting this joyful exchange:

"Kiki?!"

"Lynn?!"

The dark-skinned athlete stopped playing volleyball and ran towards Lynn, who ran towards Kiki in return. Once they were close enough, Lynn spread her arms and Kiki leaped straight for the jock, ending in a hug that caused them to hit the sand.

"It's been so long since I saw you!" Kiki chirped as she got up and off Lynn. "So, how's the team been doing? Have they won any games since I left?"

"Kiki, I feel offended that you'd ask that, knowing that I'm still part of the team! Of course we've won the games since you left!" Lynn boasted, only to rub her shoulder and look away as she sheepishly added, "Although, if I can be honest, something just felt missing without you around."

"Well, I'm glad that the team's still doing good without me regardless," Kiki scratched the back of her head. "Can't lie, swinging a bat every once in a while, was never my style, anyway. Luckily, karate has just what I need!"

"I'm happy to know that too," Lynn folded her arms and glanced at the volleyball spot. "So, do you also practice volleyball, or are you just playing with a friend?"

"Just playing with a friend," Kiki turned back to other volleyball player and whistled. "Yo, girl, come here, there's somebody I want to introduce you to!"

The player grabbed the ball and immediately walked towards Kiki and Lynn. However, Lynn wasn't ready to find out just who was this player.

It was Margo, her other teammate. She was wearing a red and white bikini top and trunks combo, and had her hair tied in a ponytail. But what was the most shocking to Lynn was that Margo... wasn't wearing her hat!

"Oh, if it isn't Lynn," Margo nonchalantly remarked. "What brings you to the beach today? Are you trying to relax and have fun too?"

Lynn, who was giving the thousand-yard stare, shook her head and returned to reality. "Y-Yeah, my siblings, some of our friends and I came here to try and relax after... I-I'm sorry, the fact you're not wearing your hat is just too distracting for me! You always wear it everywhere you go; doesn't your head feel naked without it?"

Kiki giggled as Margo rolled her eyes and stated, "Lynn, I may know how it feels to be number one, but even I'm not _that_ pathetic. Besides, it'd be a bigger issue if my _body_ was naked, don't you think?"

Lynn eyed Margo's body, she scratched the back of her head, and shrugged. "I guess on the lower end, 'cause being honest, you don't have much to hide when it comes to the chest."

"You're one to talk," Margo rolled her eyes. "Anyway, do you want to play volleyball with us or not?"

"Say yes, Lynn!" Kiki chirped, grabbing the jock's hand and lifting on of her legs. "It's the perfect chance to play as a team again! And if you're worried about Margo playing alone, then don't worry, she's a two-man team in one! She can handle herself."

Lynn glanced at Margo, then back to Kiki before, "Anything to make you happy, Kiki."

The karate enthusiast cheered up as Margo rolled her eyes and returned to her spot as Lynn and Kiki slowly separated.

"Lynn?"

Kiki and Lynn flinched, with the former going so far as to jump onto the latter's arms. Lynn soon calmed down, and turned around to see Lucy nearby, looking more visibly worried than usual.

"Are you free right now?" the nervous goth inquired, twiddling her fingers. "I just realized I have to talk with you about something that I should've tried doing a long time ago."

"Well, I can't help you right now," Lynn gently put Kiki on the ground. "I'm going to go play volleyball with Margo and Kiki over here."

Lucy tilted her head. "Oh, you're gonna spend time with your girlfriend?"

Kiki laughed out loud as Lynn flinched and snapped, "Kiki's not my girlfriend! I'm just going to play a friendly game with her and Margo to try relax and have fun, alright?!"

The goth shrugged, and walked towards Margo, waving goodbye as she somberly shouted, "Bye Lynn! Bye Lynn's friend!"

Kiki eagerly waved back and shouted, "My name's Kiki!"

Eventually, Lucy reached Margo, and caught her attention. "Margo?"

"Lucy Loud, I assume?" Margo replied, not even bothering to look at the goth. "I summoned your counterpart and asked her if you had met her, and she told me you did. I then asked her about the deal she made with you, and she said you needed to give her a pair of eyes before a couple weeks pass, right?"

Stunned by how much Margo said, Lucy blinked twice before shaking herself back to reality, "Y-Yeah. A-And I'd like to thank you for convincing her to give me a chance to keep my eyes. I owe you one."

"Just make sure not to do something stupid like summoning a progenitor again," Margo sternly growled and gave the goth a glare. "I know that as a fan of occultism, and a successor of the former gods of this world, that you'll want to learn as much as possible, but don't just jump into something as dangerous as summoning without having an idea of what you're doing. Got it?"

Lucy looked at the ground and meekly answered, "Y-Yes."

"Alright, now please leave and let me kick Lynn and Kiki's butts in volleyball," Margo looked at Lynn and Kiki in the distance. "I'll be sure to remind Lynn to help you with that stuff once we're done, don't worry."

Margo waited for a moment to hear the goth's answer, but when she didn't hear anything, she turned around to see Lucy was already walking back to her family's beach spot. And as soon as she heard "Ready!" the girl turned back to see Lynn and Kiki standing at the other end of the volleyball arena. So Margo glanced at Lucy one last time before starting the game.

As for Lucy? She sat on the sand, looking somber as a crab walked past her, which briefly caught her attention before Luan came out of nowhere and shouted:

"Lucy, look out! That's a butt crab, a crab-like demon that tears off underwear and exposes the bottom of it's victims!"

"Are you for real?!" Lucy exclaimed in horror.

Luan, with a serious tone, answered, "No!"

The goth remained stunned for a moment, until Luan laughed out loud at her joke. At that moment, Lucy groaned and looked at the ground, the same reaction she would give to the girls' puns, which seemed to bother Luan a bit.

"What's wrong, Lucy?" Luan helped the saddened goth stand up. "I mean, I know the joke was bad, but I thought you'd have a different reaction for a bad joke rather than a bad pun."

"Sorry, Luan, it's just that I have something I needed to do with Lynn, but she's busy playing with her friends," Lucy sighed. "And before you ask me to tell you what it is, to see if you can help me, the dilemma I'm dealing with is something I can't tell anybody else. I can only ask for Lynn's help."

"But Lucy, whatever issue you may have, you can't just keep it to yourself and Lynn," Luan petted the goth's head. "Look, we're all sisters, and we're all together in this big mess that Lincoln, his old version at least, put us all in! You and Lynn don't have to deal with this alone!"

Lucy just looked down and hummed.

"I know! Perhaps playing in the sand will cheer you up? Well, as much as someone as depressed as you can be cheered up?" Luan looked around, then spotted a random person selling beach balls, sunglasses, and many types of beach toys. "Stay right here, and I'll go get ourselves some beach toys!"

The goth just moaned as Luan ran off to see the person selling the beach stuff. "Hi! How much does each of these things cost?"

The person put the stuff down, revealing themselves to actually be Giggles, wearing a yellow one-piece with joke flowers installed, a straw hat rather than her usual clown hat, and the most shocking: No red nose!

"Well, the sunglasses are about 10 bucks each due to the intensity of the sun, the beach balls are about 10 bucks as well, now the buckets and shovels are a bit different," Giggles listed as Luan's jaw dropped. "If you want them both together, you gotta pay the full price, but if you want one and then the other, that'll be-"

Then Giggles looked up to see who she was talking to, and her jaw also dropped. A pair of seagulls flew by as the duo stood in that position for a moment, and then they raised their arms and shouted:

"Giggles!"

"Luan!"

Luan ran up to Giggles and lifted her before giving her a tight hug, with the clown girl returning the hug and joining in Luan's laughter. "I can't believe you're here, Luan!"

"Well, after training and all the insane stuff that happened at the pageant, Lori and Leni suggested us to come here to relax," Luan answered as she put down her friend. "But what are you doing here, Giggles?"

"I'm selling some beach toys and stuff," the clown girl answered. "Trying to get some money by doing the family business, since I need other options besides entertainment."

"Your family sells beach supplies?" Luan inquired. "How did that come to be?"

Giggles twiddled her fingers and giggled, "Well, that's a funny story..."

As the duo spoke, Lucy couldn't help but look at the sight and wonder what was taking Luan so long. Not that she thought the comedian would stand by her side for long, but she hoped she would at least do more than pull a bad joke then leave her alone.

The gothic poet looked around to try and pass the time, and just her luck, just like Luan, she found one of her friends nearby. This friend was Haiku, who was sunbathing on top of a towel far away. So Lucy got up and ran to her, shouting "Haiku!" as she got closer.

"Lucy! Oh my, what a coincidence!" Haiku exclaimed as soon as the girl arrived. "What are you doing on the beach? I didn't think you were the kind of girl who liked sunny places."

"I usually don't, but everybody agreed to come here in order to try and take a break from all the madness," Lucy sighed. "However, I haven't had that much fun in a while. Now, why are you here, Haiku?"

"Just relaxing from the stress that's work at the poetry club," Haiku shrugged. "And i'm sunbathing to make sure I don't turn into a vampire. You see, if your skin is pale, and you spend more than a year without giving it some sunbath, you turn into a vampire."

Lucy chirped up. "Really?!"

With a joking smile, Haiku shook her head, "No."

Lucy paused for a moment to process what her friend said, then laughed a bit before she sat next to Haiku and joined her sunbathing. Haiku wrapped an arm around Lucy and pulled her closer, so the sunbath would reach both of them, and hey, if it allowed Lucy to be closer to her, anything was fine with Haiku.

Still, she simply had to ask, "Say, Lucy, did you need me for something, or did you just want to hang out?"

In that moment, Lucy remembered something and snapped her fingers. "Oh, right! You spoke with Lynn before we did the spell! I don't need to hide anything from you, right, Haiku?"

"Of course not, Lucy," Haiku petted Lucy's head. "You should know by now that whatever problems you've stuck yourself into, you can always count on me to give you support."

"I'm glad, because I actually really need somebody's help right now," Lucy stated, and explained as Haiku stopped petting her and listened intently. "You see, the summoning with my counterpart went somewhat meh, and she was about to take my eyes as punishment before she decided to make a deal with me."

"One of the progenitors actually decided to make a deal with one of their summoners, rather than take what they feel entitled to have and be done with it?" Haiku recapped, sounding quite perplexed at the idea. "Now that's something you don't hear everyday, why did she even to do that?"

"According to her, she got the idea from a girl named Margo, who I met and thanked earlier," Lucy clasped her hands and twiddled her fingers. "You see, she and Margo met a long time ago, and Margo convinced her to make a bargain with me instead of taking my eyes, since I'm apparently supposed to be her daughter or something like that."

" _One of Progenitor Lynn's punching bags met my patron progenitor, and she listened to that bag, rather than someone from her own caste? What the heck could Margo give her that someone like I couldn't!?_ " Haiku thought, before quickly shaking herself back to reality and turning to Lucy. "W-Well, should I assume that this "bargain" you have with her is the thing you need help with?"

"Yeah, you see, she wants me to give her a pair of eyes that can replace mine, but they can't be fake ones or ones that aren't human, if I give her those kind of eyes, she'll take mine and be done with it," Lucy explained, then scratched the back of her head with a sheepish smile as she asked, "I was wondering, and I'm sorry if this sounds too morbid even for you, if you could spare some time to go look for a pair of eyes I could give her? Specially since the "successor of the fallen deities" thing probably means I won't have time to do it myself."

Haiku blushed and put up a little smile. " _Aw, there's the sheepish little smile I really like. Actually, it's the only smile that doesn't have a chance of ticking me off. But still, I can't say no to her like that!_ "

The poet put a hand on Lucy's shoulder and stated, "Lucy, I promise you, I'll make sure to find you a pair of eyes that will fulfill your bargain with your counterpart, no matter the cost."

"Thanks, Haiku!" Lucy chirped before hugging Haiku. "You're a life saver!"

The shock quickly wore off, and Haiku just smiled before returning said hug.

And just in that moment, a certain car parked in the parking lot, and from there came out Clyde, wearing blue trunks with a yellow flower pattern. He had a light green towel wrapped around his shoulders, and he was talking with someone on his phone as he walked to his parents.

"I'm at the beach now, Penelope, are you sure you'd rather stay with Chandler at the Sweetwater mansion?" Clyde asked, and what the redhead said next made him frown. "He's that broken over what happened with Lindsey, huh? Okay, I understand, I'll see if I can bring you something nice from here."

With that said and done, Clyde hung up, and handed the phone to his parents, prompting Howard to say, "Okay, champ, we'll be back in a couple hours, okay? There's something important we need to take care of."

"U-Until then, don't get into any trouble, okay?" Harold stated, twiddling his fingers nervously. "Don't talk to strangers, stay as close to the Louds as possible, and if any girl tries tempting you with flirting or other things, just resist it!"

"Penelope and Haiku helped me with that already, Dad, you don't have to worry so much," Clyde rolled his eyes and left. "Anyway, I'm off to see the Louds, good luck with your stuff!"

"Same with you, son!" Harold exclaimed as he waved goodbye. "Have fun!"

Once the boy was out of view, for a moment that is, the men started the car and drove off, with Clyde barely catching a glimpse of them leaving the beach. With them gone, Clyde took a deep breath and looked around for Lori and Leni, who he found rather quickly.

And then Leni got off her seat, ran to him, and hugged him. "Aw, Clyde, I'm, like, so happy you arrived! I was starting to worry Lincoln would wind up playing alone!"

Clyde immediately glanced at the lonely Lincoln in the distance, and without saying anything, the boy freed himself from Leni's grasp annd went to Lincoln, sitting right next to him as soon as he noticed him. The boys exchanged looks, and Lincoln quickly turned back to work on his sand castle, only for Clyde to join in soon afterwards.

Lincoln and Clyde exchanged looks once more, Lincoln looking confused while Clyde just smiled, and after a moment, Lincoln returned the smile and the boys started working on the sand castle. Together.

And as that happened, Luna walked around the beach, seemingly looking for someone. And she did find who she was looking for moments afterwards: She heard whistling, she turned around, and in the distance she saw Polly Pain, Tabby, and Sam walking towards her. The first two wore one pieces, while the last one wore a light blue bikini, despite lacking the curves to show off anything.

"Hey, Lamp!" Sam chirped. "How are you doing?"

Luna immediately blushed and scratched the back of her head. "Y-You look pretty fine in that bikini, Sam!"

"I know, I'm just a love goddess in the making, aren't I?" Sam boasted, pulling a pose before she scanned Luna's beachwear. "You're kind of lacking yourself, though, Luna. Have you tried gaining a bit of weight? I heard that after a certain age, a girl's fat spreads all over their body and makes them 20% sexier!"

"Don't quote her on that, she saw that on the internet," Tabby stated before scanning her surroundings. "So, where's Ronnie Anne? We'd like to see what the heck she chose to wear for the beach."

"Uh, now that you mention her, I don't think she has arrived yet," Luna answered, before clasping her hands as she nervously turned back to face Sam. "B-But until then, you and Polly could hang out with the rest of my sisters and Lincoln!"

Suddenly, Sam grabbed Luna by the neck and pulled her face-to-face with her furious glare. "The ever-living _fuck_ did you just say!?"

"T-That Tabby and her friend could hang out with Lincoln and-" Sam growled, prompting Luna to quickly correct herself, "I-I mean, j-j-just my sisters! S-She can i-i-ignore Lincoln all she wants!"

Sam pushed Luna into the ground, then crouched down and put a hand on Tabby's shoulder as she sternly stated, "You _bet_ your ass she'll ignore him! Everybody knows that guys like him will do everything they can to force poor girls like my sweet little Tabby into a boring, generic straight person. The world is already plagued by people like him, and Tabby knows better than anybody that you should avoid someone like that as hard as possible! Right, Tabby?"

"Did you really have to threaten Luna like that?" Tabby complained, folding her arms as she snapped, "I mean, just look at her! You practically scared her heckless!"

"I said," Sam threw an angry glare at Tabby. "Right, Tabby?"

Tabby returned the glare, but then sighed, "Yes, Sam."

And then Polly whistled while looking at something else, "Hey girls, take a look at that lady!"

Tabby, Sam, and Luna turned to look, and while Tabby's eyes just widened, Luna and Sam reacted strongly, with Sam looking extremely excited at the sight.

The lady Polly was talking about was Carol, who had Lana sitting on her shoulders, and resting her chin on the top of her head.

Carol was just wearing a simple blue-ish green bikini, but despite this, everybody who saw her felt immediately smitten. The bikini showed her good body, with the hips looking similar to Leni, and the bust being similar to Lori's, but besides that, it was just a simple swimsuit, that still made everybody stunned.

Maybe it was her wide hips, which were practically ready for childbirth, or her ample bust that could simply not be missed, or maybe it was just the fact that it was a hot young woman in a bikini in a beach where most other girls were little girls or not developed enough to give off an impression. Point was, Carol was hot.

And of course, Luna and Sam were also smitten. They were bisexual after all!

"Hot damn, look at that babe, Luna!" Sam clasped her hands and licked her lips. "I hope you don't mind sharing, 'cause I'm gonna go get that baby into our harem!"

"Who, wait a minute, Sam!" Luna exclaimed, stopping the rocker just before she went to Carol. "I've seen her before! I think it would be a bit more fair if I was the one who talked with her."

Sam rolled her eyes and folded her arms behind her head. "Fine, if you say so. But if it looks like she won't join us, don't hesitate to summon me!"

Luna started walking towards Carol and Lana, the latter waving hello at her as they got closer. However, Luna couldn't answer back, for she was too stuck in her own mind:

" _Okay, Lunes, don't be intimidated. Just because her bikini top shows her big rack, her hips are perfect for birthing, and it feels like you're being forced to feel this infatuated with-wait a minute, is that a birthmark on her cleavage?_ "

Suddenly, Luna and Carol crashed, with Lana clinging to Carol's hair and barely managing to hold on.

"Hi Luna, what's up? Sorry for not stopping you when I could, I honestly thought you'd stop on your own," Carol grabbed her arm and blushed. "Although, I should've seen it coming. Bikinis like these just have that effect on people, right?"

Luna remained silent for a moment, then turned to Sam and whistled, prompting the blonde musician to join them. However, Carol didn't seem particularly thrilled about it.

"Pardon my girlfriend over here, she gets really nervous when she meets people with smokin' hot bodies like yours," Sam remarked, giving Carol a wink before she added. "Listen, we were watching you just flaunt that body of yours, and my girlfriend and I wanted to know if you'd like to join us for today!"

"First of all, I know who your girlfriend here is, her name's Luna. And I know her name 'cause I've been helping her train for days," Carol sternly answered. "And second, I'm not the kind of person you think I am. In fact, I'm kinda worried people will get the wrong idea if I hang out with you."

"It's alright, baby," Sam wrapped her arm around Luna's shoulder and pulled her closer to her. "Luna may be bisexual, but she's perfectly normal! You can easily pass off as just friends hanging out!"

"Oh I have no problem with Luna, you're the one I have issues with. You see, I don't want people to think I'm _bitch_ sexual by hanging out with you," Carol growled, before grabbing Luna's hand and adding with a gentler tone, "However, I wouldn't mind hanging out with Luna, if she's up for it."

Sam, who now looked like a statue with a horrified look, collapsed on the ground as Luna nonchalantly chirped, "I'm up for it, dude!"

Luna wrapped her arm around Carol and walked by her side as Sam regained consciousness and got up to see Luna walking away with Carol and Lana. Upon seeing that, the blonde rocker slammed a fist down the sand before standing up and dusting herself.

"Looks like you now know how it feels to be rejected," Tabby teased, with Polly chuckling nearby as she added, "I think we can add that to the things you and Dad have in common."

"Shut up, Tabby!" Sam snapped before turning back to the sight. "Ugh, why would Luna leave me for that... lady! Sure, she might have wider hips... and a bigger bust... and her skin does look pretty nice-"

"Oooh, are you jealous of that girl, Sam?" Tabby teased some more, putting a hand on her cheek and shaking her head with a little smile. "Are you upset that Luna ditched you so quickly for her? It feels bad, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, and when are you gonna try to forcefully take her back?" Polly inquired, causing Tabby to flinch and gesture to her to shut up. "From what Tabby told me, you're the kind of person to do that."

In that instant, Sam immediately returned to reality and narrowed her eyes before stomping her way to Luna and Carol. She then noticed Luna was still wearing the collar, so she summoned her blue-lavender-pink or whatever energy and used it to attach an energy chain to said collar, allowing her to literally pull Luna back to her.

And as soon as Luna returned to her, she undid the chain and strongly gripped Luna's arm as the rocker complained, "Dude, what the heck was that about!?"

"Did you really think I was going to let you ditch me for that skank!?" Sam snapped back right in Luna's face, startling the rocker. "Listen, we both may agree that chick's smokin' hot, but if you seriously think you can ditch me for that woman, then you and I are going to have a talk, little missy!"

Before Luna could say anything in her defense, Sam dragged Luna back with her to Tabby and Polly, while Luna tried to free herself from her grasp with great difficulty.

The sight made Lana wince, which Carol quickly noticed. "What's wrong, Lana?"

"It's the attitude Luna's girlfriend took," Lana looked elsewhere and frowned. "Besides making me angry, it brought back some memories: Lola would sometimes act the same way that girl did when things didn't go her way."

"Hehe, that does sound like something she would do," Carol continued to walk around the beach. "Although, you have to admit that she changed since the fight with Proto-Lola."

"Yeah, she's become kinder, but also kinda clingy," Lana sighed and put a hand on her cheek. "I mean, I know we got some issues before, but I think she's trying too hard to try fix it."

Carol, only having Lana's word for it, just shrugged and then asked, "You still love her like a sister would, right?"

"Of course, It's just that... you know, with how far ahead she's gone, I feel like I need to do something to catch up," Lana immediately grew worried and looked at the scenery. "In fact, I wonder what she's up to right now..."

"She's probably out having fun," Carol reassured, brushing Lana's hair as she added. "After all, that's the reason we came here in the first place."

 _Meanwhile, with Lola..._

The one-armed diva sat close to the shore of the beach, watching the ocean waves as she thought about what she could do right now. It's not like she could see any of her friends around, and her siblings were busy with their own stuff, so they were out of the picture as well.

Lola looked at her right palm, and closed her eyes before trying to cover said arm in crystal. She succeeded, but for some reason, the girl seemed to be having trouble maintaining the crystalization, forcing her to undo it mere moments afterwards.

"Why is it so hard to keep this arm encased in crystal?!" she complained, narrowing her eyes. "I mean, I'm ambidextrous, so if it has something to do with me being more dominant in one hand than the other, then I don't think that's the issue!"

"The issue's that you haven't perfected it yet."

Lola's eyes widened and she turned around to see a certain someone next to her: Claire, wearing a one piece swimsuit, and with Watterson standing on her left shoulder. And after the duo exchanged long stares for a moment, Claire sat down next to the diva, and continued:

"You really think you'll be able to do all the things your counterpart can do with just a couple days of training? It's impossible, especially if you're trying to use one of the more advanced techniques like crystallization."

"That's an advanced technique?" Lola inquired, scratching her chin as she thought about it. "Now that I think about it, that does seem like something that-"

And then Lola glanced at Claire's back, and saw she had a birthmark there. The birthmark was shaped like a paw, and its segments were colored as followed: the first segment was grey-black, the second segment was pink, and the final segment was blue, and shaped like a spades.

But most importantly, Lola recognized the birthmark looked the same as Lana's, except for the colors of course.

"How do you know crystallization is an advanced technique?" Lola asked, narrowing her eyes. "Especially since you're from Lana's caste, not mine!"

Claire gritted her teeth and threw a surprised look at Lola, before she calmed down and looked at the ocean as she answered, "I did some research on your caste's powers, by the request of a friend. I found an old book that said Crystallization was an advanced technique, and... that's it, really."

"Curses, reading! My one true weakness!" Lola thought before saying, "Well then, that's good to know. But, what are you doing here anyway?"

Claire narrowed her eyes. "I don't feel comfortable telling you about it. And if you try convincing me to tell you..."

The girl snapped her fingers and pointed at Lola, while Watterson growled and got ready to leap at the diva. "I'm going to make sure Watterson teaches you a lesson."

Lola nodded in agreement, and both the dog and girl backed down before they turned back to look at the ocean, with Lola doing the same after a while. However, she immediately realized something, and she took the chance to ask:

"Why were you investigating my caste in the first place?"

Claire's eyes widened, and she then shook off the shock, got up and walked away, leaving behind the annoyed diva. "What?! It's a legitimate question!"

The girl continued to walk away, and Lola turned back to face the ocean, and try to forget the interaction just happened. However, she soon spotted something in the distance, something that Claire just so happened to be going after as well. So the girl got up and sneakily followed the young animal lover, making sure to hide so as to not be spotted.

Eventually, she reached the spot where Claire was headed, and found a large circle tranced on the ground, with a paw drawn inside it. Inside the drawn circled paw were two familiar kids, Liam, one of Lincoln's classmates, and her cousin Hattie, the latter who hugged the boy as hard as she could as the overseer was checking the scene.

And who was this overseer? None other... than Proto-Lana, a sight that shocked Lola into mentally exclaiming:

"The other Lana!"

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview...**

"Hi everybody, Lola here!"

Lola watched Proto-Lana talking with someone, with Liam talking to Hattie before Claire turned, forcing Lola to hide.

"I can't believe it, but Lana's counterpart is here! This can only spell bad news!"

Several scenes were shown in quick succession: Sam angrily talking with Luna, Ronnie Anne arriving at the beach and meeting with Lincoln and Clyde, the Sadie Hawkins girls talking with Lincoln, and so on.

"And here I was hoping we were gonna have a nice beach day..."

The rock Lola was hiding behind was destroyed, and a moment later, she was shown to be fighting Claire.

"Dang you, progenitors! Why must you torment us even on vacation?!"

Back with Lincoln, he separated a fighting Clyde and Ronnie Anne, and he spoke with Clyde while the dates talked with Ronnie Anne.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Hattie and Liam were shown being engulfed by a pillar of light as the title was said:

"Some Much Needed Relationship Counseling! Proto-Lana's Summoning Plan!"

Next scene showed Ronnie Anne and Clyde walking to eachother before showing Lola almost hitting the water until Proto-Lana grabbed her and lifted her.

"Don't miss it!"

The final scene shown revealed Lola being released, while Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, Clyde, and the Sadie Hawkins quartet arrived at the scene.


	21. Relationship Counseling

**Okay, things are gonna get interesting: Proto-Lana is here, will she make as much of a spectacle as her "Sister"?**

 **Let's hope not, cuz last double-length chapter nearly killed me XD**

 **Sorry for the super long wait, I needed to finish some stuff... and I can't think of another reason, so double sorry XD**

 **This is the last chapter I write from FFNet, btw. Chapter 22 and onwards are written using my phone, hopefully making things a little less troublesome for me. XD**

 **And now, to the reviews:**

 **1) Nobody245: Hmm, Lincoln does seem to be left out a lot...**

 **2) Hatoralo: That's not a good thing.**

 **3) Observant Guest:**

 *** How do I keep doing this by accident?! XD**

 *** Sam and Margo are two girls you don't wanna mess with.**

 *** Here's a hint: They each have a different caste, and are not part of Lynn's caste.**

 *** Now I'm curious, how deep are you in the show, and are you liking it so far?"**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 21: Some Much Needed Relationship Counseling! Proto-Lana's Summoning Plan!**

* * *

Lola covered her mouth, making sure to stay as quiet as possible as Proto-Lana finished setting up the scene. Skippy stood as close to the circle as possible without outright entering it, while Claire and Proto-Lana stood at the sidelines, and Liam and Hattie held hands as they remained in the center of the circle.

"H-Hattie, are you sure you want to do this?" Liam stuttered, getting his cousin's attention. "After all, this summoning spell, or whatever it is, supposedly only works correctly if the host is from caste as the summoner, and your caste... isn't the same as mine."

Hattie brushed her cousin's hair and smiled, "I'm flattered you see the need to worry about me, but don't do that, okay? You know how I would do anything to keep you safe!"

Liam frowned. "That's exactly what I'm worried about."

"I'm afraid I have to agree with him, Mother Lana," Skippy remarked, getting Claire and Proto-Lana's attention. "I mean, Liam's of your caste, but Hattie's from Progenitor Lisa's caste. I thought her caste was exiled from Lincolnism?"

"Lisa herself is banished from Lincolnism, but those from her caste are accepted as long as they pledge loyalty to "the lord and savior" Lincoln," Proto-Lana sternly stated. "And besides, this "Hattie" you speak of seems to be of the stubborn type, and I don't feel like dealing with someone like her right now."

" _Just what the heck is she planning to do?_ " Lola pondered to herself, narrowing her eyes as she tried to take a closer look at the. " _And who the heck are those two guys inside that circle-thing?_ "

However, this action proved to be detrimental to an extent, since Claire suddenly turned to face the rock Lola hid behind, causing the diva to hide back as quickly as she could and silently catch her breath as she clutched her stomach, trying not to get the girl's attention any further. However, Claire just continued to look at the rock, before inhaling, which prompted her to get on all four and crawl towards the rock as she sniffed the ground, only for Proto-Lana to get in the way and lift her by her shirt.

"Claire, are you seriously looking for a bathroom right now?" the prototype plumber scolded. "I told you to go before we headed out here!"

"T-That's not it, Mother Lana," Claire pointed at the rock. "I smelled the scent of a member of Progenitor Lola's caste from behind that rock!"

Narrowing her eyes at the statement, Proto-Lana sniffed at the scent as well, and hummed to herself as she thought about it.

"No, Claire, I'm afraid you're wrong," Proto-Lana stated. "That's not the scent of any member of Lola's caste."

Lola took a sigh of relief, before the rock she was hiding at suddenly blew up, revealing her existence to everybody. She slowly turned around, and was met with angry looks from Claire and Proto-Lana, the latter holding her left palm in sight, with smoke coming out of it.

"The scent belongs to Lola's own daughter," Proto-Lana released Claire and folded her arms. "And before you ask, Claire, you can be my guest: Teach this brat we don't appreciate eavesdroppers."

And as that happened, a familiar type of flying eyeball watched the scene from a safe spot, "zooming" it's eye forward for a clearer view. From the other end, the Biker Trio, Cindy, Mindy, and Ronnie, sat on the ground and watched the footage through a circular screen on a wall. The only one like it, in fact, since the rest of the wall was "decorated" by long-sleeved robes of some kind.

"Seems like Sweet Feet and his sisters are having a good time so far," Ronnie remarked, taking a deep breath. "I hope they get enough time to rest before weird stuff happens again."

And then the screen changed it's focus to the parking lot, where it showed the Santiago car parking in it. From said car came out Bobby and Ronnie Anne, the latter covered with a white towel. They spoke for a moment, then shared nods before Bobby went back into the car and Ronnie Anne walked towards the beach.

Ronnie's look grew stern as she saw Ronnie Anne walking towards the duo of Clyde and Lincoln. "Hopefully that "Rocky Anne" or whatever her name was doesn't ruin the fun. She seems like a troublesome girl."

"You're just hoping she doesn't tease or bully Sweet Feet as "revenge" for hitting her with your bike, right?" Mindy inquired, making her boss flinch and shrink a bit. "I warned you about doing that, you could've simply sassed her like normal, and you wouldn't need to worry about it."

And as Ronnie and Mindy continued to talk with each other, Cindy watched the screen intently, even crawling closer towards it to get a better look at Lincoln. However, a simple statement froze her in place:

"Cindy, back away before you hurt your eyes."

The trio stopped what they were doing and turned to look at the source of the voice: A girl with long blonde hair, a red headband, white sweater, red skirt, and brown shoes sitting at a desk nearby, with a sewing machine close to her.

"Sorry, Mabel," Cindy apologized as the blonde girl, Mabel, turned around to face the trio. "It's just that, well, we've never really seen Sweet Feet in anything other than his shirt and pants, so I'm kinda curious to see how his body looks in general."

Mindy turned to Cindy, clearly not buying the girl's explanation. "You're just succumbing to your crush on him, aren't you?"

"Leave her alone, Mindy, at least 90% of the people in this place share Cindy's opinion," Mabel stated, scratching the back of her head as she added, "It doesn't change the fact it's kinda weird of course, specially since she's just a toddler. Anyway, I suggest you three just keep watching in case something happens. We need to be vigilant just in case something happens to him."

The trio nodded and turned back to the screen, but not before Cindy was dragged back to a safe distance from the bright screen. With that done, the trio sat, and watched as Ronnie Anne finally reached the boys.

"Hi, Nerd-O, hi, Lame-O," Ronnie Anne greeted, getting the guys' attention. "Sorry for taking so long, finding a swimsuit to wear was a pain."

"It's okay, Ronnie Anne, we only just arrived not too long ago too," Lincoln replied as Clyde gave Ronnie an annoyed look before returning to the sand castle. "Anyway, what swimsuit did you wind up picking?"

Ronnie Anne gave a little teasing smile before she reached for her towel and threw it away so hard, it landed on top of Lori as the Hispanic tomboy struck a pose as the boys actually looked stunned at what she was wearing: A simple yellow skin-tight one-piece, with a blue "R" and "W" to her right and left respectively.

"Whoa, Ronnie Anne, that... that looks great on you!" Lincoln exclaimed, blushing as he got up. "And if it helps, to me, any swimsuit would've looked nice on you."

Ronnie Anne blushed and chuckled in return before turning to Clyde. Unlike Lincoln, he simply rolled his eyes before he turned back to the sand castle, "Meh, I've seen better."

The Hispanic tomboy growled and stomped her way forward to Clyde, until she was right up close to him. "What's that supposed to mean, Nerd-O?"

Clyde turned to Ronnie and growled, "Ronnie Anne, I'm sorry, but as much as you may want to hear me say I find you to be the hottest girl I've seen, whether in a swimsuit or in general, then I'm afraid you're setting your expectations too high."

Ronnie Anne held a smile as best as she could as she answered, "Oh, Nerd-O, I think you're the one who set their expectations too high. Because as far as I know, the hottest girl you've ever met is a certain four-eyed redhead who's a pain in the butt!"

Clyde stood up and narrowed his eyes. "Don't you dare bring up Penelope in this matter!"

Ronnie Anne leaned closer until her and Clyde's noses touched. "I'll bring up whoever I want in this argument, as long as it proves the point!"

Suddenly, Lincoln got between the duo and lightly shoved them away from each other.

"Okay, you two, stop that for a moment!" the boy exclaimed, glancing between his best friend and his long-distance friend as they shot glares at each other. "Clyde, Ronnie Anne, we're all here to try and take a break before we inevitably find ourselves right back into the madness. Can't you two set aside your differences to relax for at least five minutes?"

"Not until this jerk admits I'm right!" Clyde and Ronnie Anne exclaimed, giving each other the pointer finger.

"I mean, Nerd-O over here has to have a bad taste in girls if he doesn't think I look good in this swimsuit!" Ronnie Anne snapped before pulling a pose and throwing a flirty wink at Lincoln. "I look good, right, Lame-O?"

"W-Well, yeah, b-but maybe Clyde just has his own preferences?" Lincoln argued. "After all, you can't just expect one particular style to please everybody, right?"

Ronnie Anne folded her arms and looked away. "Doesn't change the fact his taste's terrible!"

"My taste isn't terrible, you're just a biased jerk!" Clyde snapped, adjusting his glasses. "I mean, not only do you expect me to feel "enticed" or whatever by seeing you in a swimsuit, but you have the guts to bring up Penelope in the matter!"

"Oh, then perhaps I should've brought up Lori instead?" Ronnie Anne smirked and leaned closer to Clyde, who gritted his teeth and audibly growled. "After all, last time she talked about you, she pointed out how you couldn't even stand close to her without nosebleeding and short circuiting like a robot! And I just can't help but wonder, does that still happen?"

"No, it doesn't, because I actually bothered to work out that issue!" Clyde snapped, stomping the sand. "Not unlike you and your image!"

Seeing another fight was inevitable at this point, Lincoln looked around for something that could give him some idea on what to do with those two. He then spotted the trio of Tabby, Polly Pain, and Haiku, and he immediately got an idea.

"Hey, I'm gonna go... talk with some other people," Lincoln said, getting the duo's attention. "I'll be gone for a while, so try not to kill each other before I come back, alright?"

The duo growled and stared at each other, and Lincoln took it as a yes. He then walked towards the Sadie Hawkins girls, and Lori and Leni noticed this.

"Is Lincoln literally leaving Ronnie Anne and Clyde alone? Specially when they were in the middle of an argument?" Lori pondered before turning back to Clyde and Ronnie Anne. "Doesn't he know that those two could literally blow up and beat each other up at a minute's notice?"

"Ronnie Anne, maybe, but Clyde's way too mature and smart for starting something, like, a big ball of violence," Leni replied before she turned around, then stood up and waved her arm. "And besides, look over there! Carol and Lana are coming here! Hi girls!

Lori, however, flinched and blushed in shock at what she was seeing: Carol and Lana both waved back at Leni, with Lana laughing as Carol put her free arm behind, seemingly ignoring as any guys nearby, and even some girls, gasped and fainted upon seeing Carol's bikini, sometimes with a nosebleed included.

"Aw, the bikini looks great on her!" Leni remarked with pride in her tone.

Lori, meanwhile, remained stunned at the bikini Carol wore before her shock slowly turned into anger, and she got ready to pull Leni close to her face. However, seeing her sister didn't have any clothing besides a bikini, Lori pulled her through her bikini top, making sure not to use enough strenght to tear it off.

"Leni, what literally were you thinking!?" Lori snapped at the fashionista.

Leni blinked twice, then sheepishly asked, "I, like, need you to be more specific."

"You know how hot Carol looks and how people react when they see her curves, and yet you put her in such a skimpy bikini?! What the heck?!" Lori released Leni and pointed at Carol's cleavage, where her birthmark was. "Furthermore, her birthmark is exposed, and the fact that it doesn't look anything like the other symbols our sisters have seen so far is bound to make them ask about it!"

Leni thought about it, and quickly realized her mistake. "Oh no."

"Yeah, literally oh no!" Lori grabbed Leni's arm. "Come on, let's go to her before Luna or somebody else starts asking questions!"

Before the fashionista could say anything in return, Leni was dragged by Lori as she ran towards Carol as fast as she could. And as they did that, Lincoln reached the Sadie Hawkins dates, and immediately got their attention.

"Hi girls, long time no see," Lincoln greeted, scratching the back of his head nervously. "Do you remember me?"

"Of course, how would we be able to forget the guy that tried to date us at the same time, only to be gracefully ditched for four other guys that were worth our time," Haiku replied, taking off her sunglasses and giving Lincoln a stern look. "I'm being sarcastic, of course, we know how the real deal went like."

"What the grumpy emo dwarf over here is trying to say is that we're happy to see you again," Tabby clarified before shaking hands with Lincoln. "Specially after we heard you and Clyde met Haiku at the mortician's club, you poor guy. Don't worry, you're safe with your fellow wankers here."

"Um, thanks?" Lincoln raised an eyebrow. "I was wondering if you could help me get Ronnie Anne and Clyde to try get along better."

"Wait until they get married," Polly Pain shrugged.

"I need them to get along better now!" Lincoln stated.

"Ha! In that case you don't need a plan, you need a miracle!" Haiku chuckled. "Everybody knows how much of a bully Ronnie Anne is, and Clyde's been through enough bullying in his life. There's no way the two of them will be able to get along."

Polly Pain scratched her chin and hummed, "Unless they start off small..."

Everybody turned to face Polly, Haiku doing so with an "are you serious?" look of disbelief. And they smiled, except Haiku, as Polly added, "You know what, Lincoln? I may have an idea on how to get them to become closer."

The quartet united together, and started whispering the plan to each other, all while forgetting one important question:

Where the heck were Lisa and Lily in all of this?!

 _Meanwhile, with Clyde's Parents..._

A mechanical door slid open, allowing Howard and Harold to step inside into a room, where they saw a rather surprising sight:

Lisa and Lily stood at the opposite ends of the room, Lisa holding some large reddishs word, while Lily took out her pacifier, which somehow transformed into a long pole.

"There's no need-o for this-o fight, Lily-Tan! We're sistas in same battoru!" Lisa proclaimed, trying to imitate a Japanese soldier's voice. "Assapt my proposal, cease-to and desist-to this instant-to!"

Lily replied with random baby gibberish, though it was still notable she was trying to imitate a Japanese type of voice. And whatever she said, it was enough to anger Lisa into leaping straight for the baby, shouting:

"Take-u that-o back-o!"

Lily leaped back, shouting "geeee!" as the duo got closer to each other. Just as their weapons clashed, however, they instead clashed with a mechanical wall that came out of the ground, which slowly retracted as the girls hit the ground, then turned around to see Howard and Harold looking stunned at the scene.

"Um, what's going on here?" Harold nervously inquired.

"Oh, nothing that you need to worry about, paternal units of Clyde," Lisa replied, adjusting her glasses as she added, "My baby sister, Lily, and I are just spending the time we have right now playing a parody of a scene we watched in a movie a little while ago."

"That I can guess, but what I meant was, what are you doing here?" Howard walked towards Lisa. "I thought you explicitly said you were never coming back to our headquarters after we gave our opinion on your Royal Woodroid 5000 idea!"

"Hey, there's always the chance you'll give the project a shot after thinking about it some more!" Lisa argued, with Howard shaking his head in disagreement. "And besides, the babysitter I was assigned by my eldest sister, Lori, took me here in order to give me more... freedom, as she said it, to have some fun while she worked something out."

Harold raised an eyebrow. "Who's your babysitter?"

"That would be me."

Everybody turned around and saw Becky, one of Lori's friends, entering the room with a stern look.

"Lisa, would you and Lily be kind enough to leave the room?" Becky requested, looking strictly at Howard and Harold. "I'm fairly certain these gentlemen have something to tell me."

The duo exchanged looks, then shrugged and left the room. With that done, Becky sat down on a chair and projected a screen from her forehead, while the couple sat on a couch nearby. They then remained silent as Becky checked some stuff on the screen.

And then Becky suddenly said, "If you got something to tell me, then say it, I'll hear you while I'm checking the inmates' records."

Harold and Howard exchanged raised eyebrows, and Howard promptly asked, "Why did you bring Lisa and Lily here? You know the parents don't like it when-"

"Rita and Lynn Sr. are currently on standby to go with Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Shrinivas, and Mrs. DiMartino to the realms of Progenitor Lola and Progenitor Lana, in search for progenitorial blood," Becky pointed out in a nonchalant tone. "Even if they knew about their children being here, they're still contractually obligated to obey the boss' orders, first and foremost."

"Why would they go to those two realms?" Harold inquired. "I mean, I can see why Rita would go to her progenitor's land, but why are they going to Progenitor Lana's territory as well?"

"Because elementary, my dear Harold, both of those realms have both champions and ruling progenitors out of there, leaving them completely exposed," Becky reached for the screen with her hands. "And if you're wondering how they're supposed to get progenitorial blood without the progenitors being around, that's because, simply put..."

Becky expanded the screen as big as she could, before splitting it in half, turning it into two maps, one labeled "Lolaspace" and the other "Lanaspace," with several red dots appearing in the land masses.

"The progenitors aren't the only ones with the blood," Becky pointed at one of the red dots, which showcased the image of some aqua green creature with a red crystal on their forehead roaming around. "Some of the creatures residing in that location have it as well."

"And what the heck are those creatures?" Harold inquired.

"They're Carbuncles, the corrupted version of those who are part of Progenitor Lola's caste," Becky explained before turning to the couple. "So, for example, if Howard over here became corrupted, this is what he would turn into."

Harold gasped and fainted, earning the redhead an angry look from Howard.

"Hey, I'm sorry about it, but I need to entertain myself somehow," Becky chuckled and turned the screens off. "Specially when you deal with someone like Sam..."

 _Meanwhile, with Sam and Luna..._

Luna was pined against the wall, looking nervously as Sam shot a furious glare at her as she snapped:

"Don't you ever do what you did to me today, got it, Luna!? Don't even think about doing that, you wedlocked child of Mick Swagger-looking jerk!"

Luna pushed Sam away, "First of, do I really look like that?"

"Well, you already have the hotness and forced British accent," Sam growled, before covering her eyes with her hair. "All you need to do left is let your hair grow some more, cover your eyes with it, and screw anything and anybody you come across. Bonus point if you do the last part both figuratively and literally."

"I knew I was forgetting something," Luna folded her arms. "And secondly, what do you mean by what I did to you today? Go with Carol? She made it clear she didn't want to go with you-"

"The issue I'm talking about, is the fact that you ditched me for a smoking hot stranger," Sam lifted her arms, "Which, may I remind you, being hot doesn't change the fact she's a stranger!"

"To you, maybe, but I've been around Carol enough to know a bit more about her," Luna narrowed her eyes. "And you had nothing worry about, she's a really nice girl!"

"Look, Luna, I'm not saying that I know you much better than you know yourself, and I know that if you were to be heartbroken, you'd end up killing yourself," Sam took a deep breath, and continued with a stern tone, "But I know you much better than you know yourself, and I know that if you were to be heartbroken, you'd end up killing yourself."

"Dude, you just contracted yourself." Luna stated with a deadpan tone.

"Dude," I don't care!" Sam stomped the ground. "Consistency doesn't matter as long as it gets the point across! Now tell me, do you understand what I'm trying to get?"

"No, I don't! I mean, yeah, I did ditch you for Carol, and I'm sorry I did that, I really should've thought about it better," Luna put her hands on her hips. "But going so far as to say that I would, without a shadow of a doubt, kill myself from something as minor as a breakup is just too much!"

"Not just a break up, Love, a fallout, a mean comment, anything that can break your heart, no matter how minor, will be enough of an excuse for you to just throw away your life!" Sam added, closing her eyes and shaking her head in concern. "All because of one bad moment-"

And then Sam noticed Luna was walking away. "Where are you going!"

"Anywhere that's far away from you!" Luna yelled, not botering to look at the blonde musician. "And I'm not going to go back with you until you stop being so condescending towards me!"

Sam just sighed and sat down. "Man, who knew being Luna's girlfriend could be so tiring."

As the upset British rocker walked away, she walked past Luan and Giggles, who separated soon afterwards. The comedian ran up to her sister and walked alongside her.

"Hi Luna, fancy seeing you here again!" Luan chirped, though Luna didn't pay attention. "Listen, I was going to buy some beach toys to play with Lucy and cheer her up, but I got so caught up with Giggles' story that I lost track of time, and next thing I knew, Lucy was off to play with Haiku! Although, I have no idea where she is right now."

"I'm right here."

Luan flinched and saw Lucy was suddenly walking on Luna's opposite side. "I was looking around for something to play with since Luan was taking so long, but I couldn't find anything."

"Good to know, Lucy," Luna somberly answered. "Good to know."

If Luna not reacting when Lucy appeared out of nowhere didn't catch the duo's attention, then her sad answer certainly did.

"Luna, is something wrong?" Luan inquired.

The rocker glanced at her sisters, then looked back at the ground before answering, "I got into a little bit of a fight with Sam, and... I'm a bit upset about that."

"Well, how about we go back to the others?" Lucy suggested, grabbing Luna's hand.

"Yeah, I'm sure we can find a way to cheer you up over there," Luan added, grabbing Luna's remaining hand.

The musician glanced at her sisters, both sporting reassuring smiles towards her, and as she started feeling a bit more... secure, Luna returned the smile and stated:

"Thanks, let's go. Whatever's going on over there, it has to be less stressful than what I just went through."

 _Back with the main trio..._

Clyde and Ronnie Anne continued to stare at each other, just before Lincoln arrived and separated them, saying, "I'm back! Hey, Ronnie Anne, those three girls over there want to talk with you. They have an idea on how you and Clyde can learn to stand each other!"

Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow, but then shrugged it off and walked towards the trio, leaving Lincoln and Clyde alone. And, immediately sensing some sort of ulterior motive, Clyde turned to Lincoln and folded his arms. "Alright, Lincoln, what's the big deal?"

Lincoln put a hand on his hip and told Clyde, "Go up to Ronnie Anne and ask her if you can put sunscreen on her back."

And at the same time, Haiku folded her arms and sternly told Ronnie, "Go to Clyde and ask him if he can put sunscreen on your back."

Clyde and Ronnie Anne reacted accordingly, "What?!"

"You claim to no longer be a bully, as does Lincoln, but we simply can't take your word for it, you have to show us you don't bully any nerd you see," Haiku leaned closer to Ronnie Anne and narrowed her eyes. "Clyde is a well-known victim of bullying, and most bullies have taken the chance to beat and demean him. If you can refrain from hurting him unprovoked, then we'll consider taking your claim seriously. If he provokes you, then beat him up all you want, but if you do so unprovoked, we'll be the ones to beat you up!"

"Listen, Clyde, I know you and Ronnie Anne don't get along, but that's precisely why I'm asking you to do that, so you have a chance to be together and, hopefully, become a bit friendlier in the process," Lincoln put a hand on Clyde's shoulder and gave him a wink and a thumbs up. "And besides, who would pass up the chance to pour some sunscreen on the back of a cute girl like Ronnie Anne?"

"Cute girl?! Lincoln, she's more masculine in a swimsuit than I am in my everyday attire!" Clyde snapped. "I mean, take off her eyelashes and her ponytail and-"

Suddenly, Clyde got an idea and smiled. "Actually, there might be a chance this could work."

"See? You just got to think positive!" Lincoln turned Clyde around. "Now go get her, tiger!"

Both Clyde and Ronnie Anne were pushed towards each other by Lincoln and Haiku respectively. They walked towards the other, taking a brief moment to glance at the people who put them in this situation, until they were meeting face-to-face.

"So, hi, Ronnie Anne," Clyde greeted, before revealing the sunscreen. "Listen, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind if I put some sunscreen on your back."

"No, I don't mind, I'd like that a lot, actually," Ronnie Anne took a deep breath, blushing as she looked away and muttered, "Because if there's a part I need protected from the sun, my back is certainly the one."

Clyde grabbed Ronnie's hand, making the tomboy flinch as he said, "I think there's a free towel somewhere around here, follow me."

Ronnie raised an eyebrow, "A-Alright?"

The duo walked to a towel Lincoln put down, and the white-haired boy immediately left and ran to Haiku's side, where they watched as Ronnie rested on the towel, and Clyde got ready to pour the stuff.

"Okay, it looks good so far," Lincoln interlocked his fingers and nodded. "At the very least, they don't seem to be anywhere near close to beating each other up."

"Yeah, Clyde's such a gentleman, he knows how to treat a lady," Haiku remarked with a confident tone, only for her tone to turn serious as she added, "We should probably be a bit wary of Ronnie Anne, though, she seems like the kind of girl that would go on a rage at the drop of a hat."

Back with Clyde and Ronnie Anne, Clyde barely got to pour some sunscreen before the tomboy started complaining, "You better not have some sort of weird idea, Nerd-O. I may need to prove I'm not a bully to Poet-O, but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna defend myself if you try something funny."

"Don't worry, Ronnie Anne, the last thing I want to do is try anything that would convince you to beat me up," Clyde poured some more sunscreen. "So calm down and relax, alright?"

Ronnie Anne rolled her eyes and focused on watching the ocean, which soon brought a smile ot her face. "The ocean looks pretty nice from here, doesn't it?"

"I guess so," Clyde continued spreading the sunscreen, leaning closer and closer to Ronnie Anne's hairtie as he asked, "Is that a rare sight in your new home?"

"I moved in to a big city, so yeah, it's rather rare for me to see the ocean," Ronnie Anne shrugged. "I mean, I get to watch it in my computer once in a while, but not so much in real life. It's... much prettier in real life."

Clyde got close enough to reach the hair tie, but he hesitated for a moment. He then asked, "Ronnie Anne, did your reputation follow you into your new home? Does anybody know about your past there?"

Ronnie Anne thought about it, and looked at the ground as she answered, and Clyde took off her hair tie, "No, nobody knows what kind of person I used to be back in Royal Woods. And to be honest, I'm happy that's the case, 'cause it gives me the chance to try reinvent myself, try and shed away from the bully I used to be. And it might be easier to do it there than here, that's for sure."

"Well, ignore this suggestion if you want, but don't you think you should also changed your look as well?" Clyde suggested, making the tomboy raise an eyebrow. "I mean, you had a ponytail back when you lived in Royal Woods. Don't you think it's time to let your hair down?"

Ronnie Anne reached for her hair, and noticed it wasn't tied anymore. She then turned to see Clyde walking away, with her hair tie in his hands, which prompted her to stand up and chase after Clyde, who laughed out loud as he ran away. As for Lincoln and the girls? Lincoln, Tabby, and Polly ran after Ronnie Anne, while Haiku remained at her spot, clutching her stomach as she laughed out loud, followed by Ronnie Anne letting out a giant roar as Clyde noticed an odd sight in the horizon...

 _Meanwhile, back with Lola..._

Claire ran on all four towards Lola, roaring as well as she bared her claws and tried to slash at the diva. However, while Lola managed to dodge the slashes by simply running away, she still got a couple claw marks in her cheeks and remaining arm.

"H-H-Hold it right there!" Lola exclaimed, getting Claire to stop for a moment. "Whatever Lana's counterpart has promised you, I assure you, I can give you s-something just as valuable! Just please, stop trying to hurt me and let me go! I won't tell anybody about this, I promise!"

Claire just growled and narrowed her eyes. "Trying to bargain and possibly manipulate your way out of this deal? You really are the daughter of Progenitor Lola!"

Lola flinched and covered herself, somehow causing a large pink crystals to come out nearby her, then enclose themselves around her, creating a crystal dome-shield of sorts, and just in time before Claire attacked, as well.

However, the toddler didn't give up, and she continued to claw at the shield, with little success, until Proto-Lana noticed the action.

"Claire, are you still dealing with Lola's daughter?" Proto-Lana asked in exasperation. "Quit wasting your time and drive her away already!"

"I'm trying, Mother, I really am!" Claire yelled back, focusing solely on slashing at the crystal shield. "But no matter how hard I slash, my hits don't connect!"

Proto-Lana rubbed her forehead and growled, taking a moment to take a deep breath before she leaped up, and spread a pair of wings made of light. From said wings, she shot some energy needles at the shield, and Claire only noticed moments before the needles blew up, destroying the shield in the process. Lola was sent flying off to the ocean, though Proto-Lana, now back to normal, was still fast enough to grab Lola before she hit the water.

And when Lola regained consciousness, she saw two odd things: The first was Proto-Lana keeping her in place rather than just throwing her away, and Proto-Lana was literally standing on the water as if it was an actual floor.

"Listen up, Jophiel, you may think that just because you managed to survive your encounter with my sister, your mother, that you can just come up to my place and try to mess up my stuff too," Proto-Lana narrowed her eyes and pulled Lola closer to her. "But you're forgetting one thing, "Neo-Lola," your mother let you win. If it hadn't been for the deal she made with that redheaded clone of you, there's a high chance you wouldn't have "won" that fight, let alone survive it."

Proto-Lana aimed her remaining hand close to Lola's throat, before turning her fingernails into claws, which were just big enough to almost touch the throat. And then, as she spoke, Proto-Lana gently caressed one of Lola's cheeks:

"But, I'm afraid that the luck you had back then, won't be of use to you now. Because you have no friends here, and, to be perfectly blunt, neither does your sister, Hayyel."

Proto-Lana glanced at Claire with a stern look.

"Claire is my champion, a mumbling, incompetent one in most stuff, but when it comes to slicing and dicing, she's perfect for the job. And besides, her loyalty's guaranteed, so even if you opened her mind to see her situation more clearly, she'd still listen to me, and only me."

Then, Proto-Lana started slowly, painfully clawing through Lola's cheek, all while keeping a stern look towards Claire. And though the girl shivered as if to say she wanted to help, she stayed put, and watched as Proto-Lana turned to face Skippy next.

"Skippy over here is another member of my pride, my summoner for whenever I need to invoke some of the... I guess you can call them "beasts," I have under my control. And besides, he's fine with being both a summoner, and a host."

Proto-Lana narrowed her eyes and smiled maliciously, "Isn't that right, Skippy?"

In that moment, a harsh memory came back to the boy: He was walking at the streets, when suddenly, he saw Lana's hat fly by. He immediately caught it, and returned it to the tomboy, but just as he spoke, he suddenly lost all control over his body, and he could only watch as he called Lana "Lola," earning himself a beating soon afterwards.

Skippy narrowed his eyes and turned back to the summoning circle as Proto-Lana stopped clawing and turned back to face Lola, who was trying to hold back her tears.

"And don't even get me started on the bird-brained bitch that is Bobbie Fletcher," Proto-Lana smirked. "But enough chit-chat."

Proto-Lana threw Lola up in the air, and caught her just before she hit the water, only this time, Lola was looking towards the summoning spot.

"I'll let you see what a summoning looks like," Proto-Lana turned to Skippy once more and barked. "Summon the Leviathan, Skippy!"

Skippy hesitantly nodded and waved his arms around, the back of his head glew blue as Liam and Hattie were enveloped in a blue light coming from the circle, before being enfulged by the blue pillar of light that came out soon afterwards.

However, as the sillouethes belonging to Liam and Hattie slowly merged into one, Proto-Lana got quick a shock where the water she was standing on suddenly got electrified, electrocuting her and making her free Lola, who turned the water below her into ice in order to avoid the shocking fate.

How did she figure out how to do that? Good question.

Anyway, the one-armed pageant princess stood up and ran to the shore... or at least tried before she slipped, fell flat on her face, and slid her way to the shore instead, with the water she slid into quickly turning into ice so as to not let her fall off. Once she finally hit the shore, the ice melted back into water as she got up and saw who helped her:

Ronnie Anne, who had her left arm extended with a couple sparks coming out of it. Alongside her were Clyde, still holding her hair tie, and Lincoln and the Sadie Hawkins dates, with Lincoln immediately running to Lola's aid.

"Lola, are you okay?!" Lincoln asked worriedly.

"I'm more or less fine, but everybody needs to flee now!" Lola stated as she got up. "Lana's counterpart is going to summon a giant monster to attack the beach!"

Upon hearing that, the Sadie Hawkins dates exchanged nods, and all hung to Polly as she stated, "We'll go tell them about it!"

Polly ran away at high speeds with the rest of the dates clinging to her, and once the water stopped being electrified, Proto-Lana regained her balance and rubbed her forehead, hissing, "Let's just hope that the fish were deep down when your lighting struck. Otherwise, I'm gonna be really angry."

And then she turned around and saw Ronnie Anne snatching her hair tie back from Clyde, and Lincoln looking angry at her.

"What's this? Preys, hunters, and Lincoln working together?" Proto-Lana scoffed as Ronnie Anne tied her hair back into a ponytail. "And here I thought I had seen everything after eons of existence."

"Well, we're not so much working together as we just so happen to pass by," Ronnie Anne folded her arms. "Now, what are _you_ doing here?"

"As much as I'd love to answer your question and tell you about my plans, I'm afraid that as the king of the Lana caste, I can't waste my time with commoners like you," Proto-Lana snapped her fingers, summoning Claire to her side. "But don't worry, Claire over here will keep you occupied."

The toddler raised her claws, and the team got ready to attack as she stated:

"Nothing personal, guys. I must follow her every order."

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview...**

"Hello everybody, Skippy here!"

As the boy spoke, the bike trio were shown following Mabel to a room full of statues, only to show Paige coming out of the shadows and greeting the trio.

"The summoning's going as planned, but I wish everything else was going as smoothly."

Back at the beach, Lola and Ronnie fought Claire while Lincoln spoke with Clyde, while Proto-Lana glared at them.

"Being under Mother Lana's watch is bad enough, but now the "lord and savior" is here too!"

Lincoln and Clyde spoke for a little bit longer before Clyde separated from him and walked towards the prototype.

"Having them together can only spell disaster!"

Lincoln and Proto-Lana talked with each other, the former growing angrier as he heard the prototype, who looked rather smug.

"And worse, it's not a case of if, but of when..."

Proto-Lana was sent flying away by Lincoln, only to return and knock him into the water unconscious.

"I have a bad feeling about this..."

The Sadie Hawkins dates tried warning their respective friends about the incoming danger as Skippy said:

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Two scenes played in quick succession: A large rock struck Claire, and Ronnie Anne looked confused before throwing a suspicious look at Clyde, then Carol and Lana teleported to the fight, before the scene changed to the dates talking with Lori and Leni.

"A Hydra-ulic Warning! Sincoln Rises Once More?!"

Ronnie Anne and Lola attack Claire, who is about to conterattack before being struck by Carol and Lana, much to Ronnie Anne and Lola's surprise.

"Don't miss it!"

The last scene is of Lincoln in the water, opening his eyes... Revealing they had spade-shaped pupils.


	22. Hydra Rising

**So, things get a little bit different from my original plan for this story arc here. The most, if not only, noteworthy changes being Lincoln won't fight Proto-Lana alone, and the Sadie Hawkins dates are actually gonna do something before the big fight XD**

 **Also, this chapter will introduce a certain character you may remember from the original story, so instead of going right back from where we left off, we'll take a detour to Lincolnism to introduce this character.**

 **But don't worry, after that, this chapter will entirely be the beach stuff.**

 **But before that, let's answer some reviews!:**

 **1)** ** **Hatoralo: Betraying a progenitor is one thing. Living to tell the tale is another.****

 ** **2) Nobody245:****

 ** *** Who says Lincolnism was created with the Proto-Sisters' consent, or even knowledge?****

 ** **3) animehero1000:****

 ** *** Chapter 20:****

 ** **** Enjoy it while it lasts.****

 ** **** A Proto-Sister? Relaxing? Hahahaha!****

 ** *** Chapter 21:****

 ** **** Don't worry, everybody will have a bad time soon enough. XD****

 ** **** Who says they haven't done that? It's just a little... Out of this world.****

 ** **** Yay, progress!****

 ** ** **4) Observant Guest:******

 ** ** *** Any progress is good, especially since it might take a while for them to grow friendly towards eachother.******

 ** ** *** Am I ripping off Steven Universe yet? XD******

 ** ** *** When even the champions and followers of a greater being are subjected to that kind of treatment, you know something's wrong.******

 ** ** *** No promises ;)******

 ** ** *** Yup.******

 ** ** *** Well, let me give you a fair warning: Season 2 and 3 are vastly different compared to season 1. But hey, I'm glad you're enjoying what you see.******

 ** ** ** **5) ChernoMan:********

 ** ** ** *** Chapter 20:********

 ** ** ** **** Yeah, a lot.********

 ** ** ** **** Clyde will certainly need to do that.********

 ** ** ** **** You could even say Sincoln IS the original sick arse.********

 ** ** ** **** That's my idea for most QT characters, really.********

 ** ** ** **** MargoXLucy forever!********

 ** ** ** **** You think Sam now's a psycho? You've seen nothing yet.********

 ** ** ** *** Chapter 21:********

 ** ** ** **** Mistake on my part, I meant to say I may take my time to update the story, to try catch up a little.********

 ** ** ** **** Loyalty to Lincoln, to be exact.********

 ** ** ** **** Evangelion, huh? Totally forgot about that. ;)********

 ** ** ** **** Yeah, even Lapis Lazuli agrees!********

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 22: A Hydra-ulic Warning! Sincoln Rises Once More?!**

* * *

 _At the Lincolnism Church..._

More lincolnists had gathered around the room where Mabel and the biker trio were watching the beach stuff from Mabel's eye illusion, which showed how the team were dealing with Claire and Proto-Lana.

"No, don't fight back! Fighting a follower of the mother's followers is pointless!" a lincolnist shouted at the scream. "As long as she has her blessing, she won't go down so easily!"

"Step aside and let the lord and savior take care of her!" another lincolnist ordered.

"They do know they can't hear them from here, right?" Mindy whispered to Cindy and Ronnie. "I mean, I know we do the same thing with Blarney, but... Well, this is just weird."

"Maybe we could tell them to stop that and just watch the video?" Ronnie whispered back.

"Don't even bother," Mabel stated, getting the trio's attention. "They're so engrossed in what they're seeing right now, they won't listen to anything or anybody else."

The trio looked at the ground somberly. "And we can't even watch it anymore, they took our spot!"

Mabel looked at the trio with sympathy. "Would you like to go out and take some fresh air?"

The trio nodded, and without further ado, the girls left the room and took a walk across the hallways of the church, which were surprisingly quiet.

"One good thing about the lincolnists being gathered in that one room is that their noise is concentrated there, rather than all over the church," Mabel got an idea. "In fact, maybe we should make sure it stays like that for a while?"

The trio tilted their heads in confusion, but their confusion turned into curiosity once the sweater girl took them to a large room filled with large, orange-tinted statues of several people: Ronnie Anne, Clyde, Cristina, Bun-Bun, and so on.

"This is a special room used to commemorate and celebrate the people this church deems as "Saints": People who were of great help to Lincoln, or who otherwise were there for him during his darkest days," Mabel scratched the back of her head. "Granted, some Saints are more _legitimate_ than others, but-"

Once she turned around, however, Mabel saw the biker trio had separated, and were in fact looking at several of the statues up close. However, one in particular caught their attention: The statue of Cristina.

"Who's this girl?" Ronnie asked as Mabel reunited with the trio. "She's cute."

"That's Cristina."

The quartet turned around, and saw a certain girl walk out of the darkness and into the light: Paige.

"The first Sister-Lover, and Lincoln's first love interest in general."

"Hi Paige, nice to see you too," Mabel remarked. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see if I needed to ask Cristina for help," Paige walked forward to Mabel. "How's Lincoln's situation?"

Mabel frowned. "He, his best friend, his diva sister, and Ronnie Anne are dealing with Progenitor Lana's champion, all while a hydra's in the process of being summoned."

Paige took a deep breath, then walked to Cristina's statue. She stopped in front of it, where the statue's shadow loomed over her, then got on one knee and clasped her hands together.

"What's she doing?" Ronnie asked.

"She's praying," Mabel answered. "These statues aren't just here to show the Saints at their best, but also to act as a way to ask them for Divine help, wherever they are."

"Really?!" Cindy chirped. "Can I ask her to help Lincoln notice me?!"

Mabel chuckled. "That's not how it works."

And as Mabel gave a boring explanation of how this stuff worked, Paige looked up straight at the statue's eyes, thinking:

" _I know we never got along, no matter how hard I tried to fix that. But if there was something we both shared in common, whether you liked it or not, it was our opinion of Lincoln. But this place's opinion of him is vastly different, so we were the only ones who understood each other's beliefs. All I'm trying to say is, help them for Lincoln's sake._ "

Paige narrowed her eyes.

" _And whatever you do, don't even think about_ ** _betraying_** _them._ "

 _Meanwhile, with the team..._

Lola and Ronnie Anne dodged Claire's attacks while also throwing attacks of their own, keeping her occupied as Lincoln and Clyde talked to each at the sidelines.

"Okay, so, I have an idea," Clyde whispered. "We distract Lana's counterpart long enough for you to interrupt the summoning! Maybe knock out the little boy too to stop him from trying to summon the monster again."

"I like that plan, but there's just one problem," Lincoln looked to his side. "Lana's counterpart's looking straight at us."

Clyde and Lincoln stood up and turned around to see that yes, Proto-Lana was looking at them, arms folded behind her back as she stood still on top of the water.

However, besides throwing a glare at the boys' direction, she didn't do anything. She just... stood there... and stared.

"I'm guessing she's waiting until we make a bad move to strike," Clyde adjusted his glasses. "That's how predators work."

Wanting to give his best friend's idea a test, Lincoln walked forward a little bit, and Proto-Lana's diluted a bit before she started growling, prompting Lincoln to go back to his spot.

Upon doing so, not only did Proto-Lana's eyes turned back to normal and she calmed down, but Lincoln confirmed Clyde's theory.

"Clyde, I have an idea," Lincoln whispered to his friend. "I'll try to talk to her, while you go help Ronnie Anne and Lola."

Before Lincoln could take another step, Clyde grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"Are you crazy!? She's some sort of all-powerful copycat of Lana who, in case you forgot, wants to killl you!" Clyde sternly pointed out. "Trying to negotiate with her is practically suicide!"

"I know, but remember: The Lincoln she wants isn't me, and she's just standing there without doing anything," Lincoln explained, before turning back to the prototype. "It's a risky tactic, but... I have to try it."

Lincoln freed himself from Clyde's grasp and walked towards Proto-Lana, leaving Clyde behind to try figure out a way to assist the girls with Claire...

And then he spotted a large rock.

Moments later, Ronnie Anne and Lola were about to be jumped by Claire when said rock was thrown at her, shattering into pieces in the process.

"Nice shot, Ronnie Anne!" Lola exclaimed as she lifted some crystal shards from the rubble. "Thanks for the crystal shards as well!"

Ronnie Anne blinked. "But I-"

The tomboy turned to the spot where the rock was flung, but all she saw was Clyde... who threw a wink at her direction.

"-I didn't do it." Ronnie Anne finished, slightly narrowing her eyes at Clyde.

While that happened, Lincoln slowly walked closer to Proto-Lana, whose eyes diluted as she growled at the boy, at least until he stopped close to the edge of the rocky formation

Proto-Lana immediately bared her claws and fangs, startling Lincoln into taking a step back.

"I know my other self did horrible things to you and your sisters, I've had a couple visions showing me what he did," Lincoln spoke. "Some are more unnerving than others, but the one I just had about you, was seriously messed up."

"Why do you speak as if you and the Lincoln I know are different people?" Proto-Lana inquired, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "Are you trying to trick me, brother? Do you want me to lower my guard, so you can break me again!?"

"What?! Good lord, no, nothing like that!" Lincoln rubbed his forehead. "Listen, the Lincoln you're looking for, Sincoln, is locked deep inside my mind, and I'm going to make sure he stays there as long as possible! You're safe with me, okay? You can trust me..."

Proto-Lana chuckled and put a hand on her cheek. "Sincoln? That's what you named him? Oh, if only Luan knew about this, she'd be laughing for the first time in eons! I think I'm gonna call him like that from now on, it's just too good to pass up!"

Lincoln raised an eyebrow, and Proto-Lana continued:

"But let me get one thing clear, Lincoln: You can't keep him locked up forever. You can try, and you can come close to succeeding, but you will never be truly successful, and you wanna know why?"

Lincoln frowned. "Why?"

Proto-Lana smirked. "Because, deep down, he's the kind of person you really are: A hedonistic asshole who'll break his friends, his family, and even innocent people, just for his own pleasure!"

Lincoln narrowed his eyes. "I'm not like that..."

Proto-Lana took a couple steps forward, reaching the rocky platform, "Someone who'll play the victim card when he's found commiting his atrocities, but who won't even bat an eye when he sees somebody else commit the same horrors."

Lincoln gritted his teeth. "I'm _not_ like that..."

Finally, Proto-Lana stopped in front of Lincoln, and looked straight into his eyes as she hissed:

"An existential afterthought whose only purpose is to reproduce with any female creature he comes across, so that he can breed generation after generation of lovechildren, all in hopes of giving meaning to his miserable life!"

Lincoln lifted Proto-Lana and snapped:

"I'm! _Not!_ ** _Like that!_** "

The boy promptly threw the prototype away with such strength, she flew past several rocks before she crashed into a mountain, with the crack spreading from her position to slightly above and below it.

By the time Lincoln noticed what he just did, Proto-Lana leaped from her spot and kicked Lincoln right in the gut, sending him straight into the water.

And as the boy slowly lost consciousness, he heard Proto-Lana mock him one last time:

"Lori's distance, Leni's ignorance, Luna's stubbornness, Luan's audacity, Lynn's recklessness, Lucy's pessimism, my animalistic instinct, Lola's egocentricity, Lisa's coldness, and Lily's childishness... hmph: Everything about you has been taken by another sister already."

Lincoln closed his eyes as the prototype finished with:

"You really were an afterthought."

...And mere seconds later, Lincoln's eyes opened, revealing they had spade-shaped pupils.

 _Meanwhile, at the beach..._

The Sadie Hawkins quartet reached the shore and stopped close enough to the sisters to see what they were doing: Luna and Luan were sunbathing, Lori and Leni rested under on their chairs under an umbrella, Lucy made a sand castle along with Carol and Lana, and Lynn was playing volleyball with Margo and Kiki.

"Okay, it seems they haven't noticed the pillar of light yet," Polly remarked as the team released their grasp from her. "I'll see if I can convince Lynn, you go try the same with your friends!"

The quartet all nodded in agreement, and separated to try give the sisters a warning.

First, Polly approached Lynn right in the middle of the volleyball game.

"Oh hey, Polly's here!" Lynn remarked cheerfully. "Margo, Kiki, up for another round? Polly's goig to join us for it!"

"Leave that for later, Lynn!" Polly exclaimed. "There's something I need to tell you!"

"That you don't like any sports besides roller derby, right?" Lynn tiredly guessed. "Listen, Polly, you can lie to yourself all you want, but you'll never convice me: There has to be some other sport you're interested in than roller derby."

"Just because _you_ like a lot of sports doesn't mean the same applies to everybody!" Polly snapped. "Listen, a giant monster is about to be summoned! You and your sisters need to get out of here as fast as you can!"

"Maybe you should listen to her, Lynn," Margo remarked, catching the ball and pausing the game. "It sounds like serious stuff."

"Oh don't be such a worrywart, Margo," Kiki said. "As long as we got Lynn here, we got nothing to worry about!"

"Yeah, Kiki's right!" Lynn pounded her fists. "Whatever creature comes out next, I'll pulverize it with my bare hands!"

"Lynn, this isn't something you can deal with on your own," Polly narrowed her eyes. "Swallow your pride and listen to me for once!"

"Or, you could swallow your pessimism, and let me and the girls continue our game!" Lynn snapped. "Now if you excuse me, I have a volleyball game to play!"

With that said, Lynn returned to the volleyball game, and Polly pulled her pigtails in frustration.

Meanwhile, Giggles and Tabby reached Luna and Luan, who stopped sunbathing and immediately paid attention to the girls.

"Giggles, what's wrong?!" Luan asked as she went to the clown girl's side.

"We ran to you here, and we got some bad news to deliver," Giggles explained.

Luna looked elsewhere and frowned. "Can't you tell us later?"

"If we tell you later, it will be too late!" Tabby snapped. "It's now or never!"

Luna folded her arms and exchanged looks with Luan before asking, "What is it?"

"A giant monster of some kind's being summoned!" Giggles exclaimed. "You and your sisters need to get out of here before it shows up!"

Luan frowned. "Giggles, that's not funny."

Giggles narrowed her eyes. "I'm not joking, I'm being serious!"

"Well, one way or another, we can't leave yet," Luna glanced at Lori and Leni in the distance. "Our older sisters are keeping an eye on us, and besides, if I leave without telling Sam about it, she's gonna be furious, and I'd rather not deal with that right now."

Luan put a hand on her sister's shoulder. "But, Luna, if we wait too long, it might be too late to leave by the time the creature arrives!"

"Well, you might find what I'll say bogus, something I never thought I'd say," Luna spoke. "But I'll risk dealing with a giant sea monster that comes here to kill us all, than definitely deal with an angry Sam!"

"That's not bogus at all," Tabby scoffed. "That's actually fairly reasonable."

Luna and Luan went back to their sunbathing, and Tabby and Giggles left them alone.

"The one time I'm serious about something, and they think I'm joking," Giggles growled. "That's the life of a clown for you!"

"We did what we could," Tabby said, putting a hand on Giggles' shoulder. "Let's reunite with the other girls, see if they had better luck than us."

Elsewhere, Haiku ran to Lucy, Lana, and Carol, making sure to stop before she crashed with their sand castle. "Lucy, I need to tell you something!"

"And so do I," Lucy frowned. "Sigh, you didn't crash into our sandcastle?"

Haiku was confused. "Huh?"

"Lucy says that the sandcastle needs some special defense measures to protect it and wanted to have it knocked over as proof, but I think it's fine as it is," Lana explained, before looking at Carol. "And Carol over here refuses to tell us what she thinks."

"I prefer to stay neutral in trivial matters like this," Carol briefly summarized.

"That doesn't matter right now!" Haiku shouted, pulling her hair. "You guys need to leave immediately!"

"Well, I guess we could do that," Lana remarked. "I wanted to stay here a little bit longer, but oh well, where's Lola?"

"Who?" Haiku tilted her head.

"My twin sister," Lana rolled her eyes. She looks like me, but wears some sort of swimsuit dress."

Lana looked elsewhere regretfully. "And... she only has one arm."

"Oh, I think I saw somebody like that," Haiku looked at the pillar of light. "I think she was getting her butt kicked somewhere over there-"

"What?! She's in danger?! Why didn't you say so!?" Lana snapped before turning to Carol. "Take me to her, Carol!"

The girl nodded, opened a portal, and both she and Lana jumped through it... leaving Haiku and Lucy behind as the portal closed.

"Lucy, come on, we need to get you out of here!" Haiku said as she walked closer to the girl.

Lucy frowned silently.

"Lucy, now's not the time to play the quiet game," Haiku grabbed Lucy's arm. "We need to-"

Suddenly, Lucy slapped Haiku's hand away, causing the gothic poet to take a step back while the stoic girl realized what she did.

"H-Haiku, I didn't mean to do it," Lucy said as Haiku started to get visibly angry. "I-"

"You don't believe me, right? You think I'm making something up, right?!" Haiku snapped, stomping the ground. "Well, you know what, fine! Stay here with your sandcastle and ignore the blatant danger ahead! But when things go bad, don't come crying to me!"

Haiku stomped away, and Lucy looked at her sandcastle sadly. "She didn't even try destroying it."

Haiku then returned and destroyed the sandcastle with a single kick, stomping away as Lucy said "Thanks!" with a little smile.

With all that done, the dates reunited back at their original spot.

"Well, Lynn didn't hear me, but I expected that from someone as bullheaded as her," Polly turned to the clown and rockstar. "How about you?"

"We didn't have any luck, either," Tabby turned to the gothic poet. "How about you, Haiku?"

"Ugh, outside of the blonde one with the red hat and the woman in a bikini, none of them are listening!" Haiku snapped. "At this point, the beast will be summoned with the sisters still in the beach!"

"Something the matter?"

The girls turned around and noticed Lori and Leni looking at them, the latter with a concerned look. They promptly walked to them and Giggles said:

"We tried telling your sisters about some imminent danger," the girls frowned and lowered their heads. "But they won't listen to us."

Lori suggested thusly, "Well, how about you tell us what's going on, and we'll send the message to our sisters afterwards?"

The quartet raised an eyebrow. "You'll hear us out?"

Lori gave the girls a thumbs up. "You literally got our word for it."

Leni nodded with a smile. "We'll totes hear everything you have to say."

The Sadie Hawkins quartet smiled in relief, and Polly started, "Well, you see..."

 _Back with the Team..._

Ronnie Anne held Claire in place with her electrokinesis long enough for Lola to cover her arm in crystal, then punch the animalistic girl, not only shattering her arm back to normal but sending Claire crashing onto some rubble.

Lola smiled in relief. "Okay, that should've knocked her out-"

And then came out of the rubble, shutting up the pageant diva. However, just as she lunged at the team again, a portal opened and Carol and Lana came out of it and kicked Claire away.

"Lana! Carol!" Lola exclaimed. "What are you doing here?!"

"Appearing at the last second to save your butts," Carol answered. "What else would we be doing?"

Lana then ordered. "We'll take care of Claire, you go see if Lincoln's okay!"

Before she could say anything, Lola was dragged by Ronnie Anne as she, the pageant princess and Clyde ran to the rocky platform, to see if Lincoln was okay.

And sure enough, they only saw Proto-Lana at the platform, with Lincoln nowhere in sight.

"What did you do to my brother, you cheap copy of Lana!?" Lola yelled at the prototype plumber.

"I tester his resolve: I told him his true purpose in life, and how in the end, he was only born as an afterthought," Proto-Lana explained. "When he reacted like a little brat, I figured there was no point in dealing with him, so I tossed him into the water to allow him to die in peace."

Proto-Lana looked at the waters with a cautious look. "That is, unless "he" forces him to come out."

"He" forces him to come out?" Ronnie Anne narrowed her eyes. "Who the heck are you talking about?!"

"Lincoln" emerged from te water and landed on the rocky formation, shaking the water off himself before he looked up, revealing his orange sclera and the previously mentioned spade pupils.

"I'm back, bitches!" "Lincoln" exclaimed with a saristic grin. "Who's ready to venerate the lord and savior of this pathetic world!?"

"Is it just me, or does Lame-O seem more like a jerk all of a sudden?" Ronnie Anne inquired, scratching her head.

Lola narrowed her eyes and backed away a little. "That's not my brother, Ronnie Anne..."

"He's not even trying to act like the Lincoln we know, either," Clyde sternly stated, adjusting his glasses as he deduced, "This must be the Lincoln that destroyed the original reality, the Lincoln that the Proto-Sisters are looking for."

"Is that so?" Ronnie Anne glanced back at Sincoln. "But, if that's the case, where did he come from?"

"Regardless of that, I suggest you back away a lot," Proto-Lana suggested, focusing entirely on Sincoln. "This depraved bastard might try to feel you up otherwise."

"I don't wanna say it, but maybe we should listen to her," Lola remarked. "This Lincoln... I don't know why, but just knowing he's there freaks me out."

Ronnie Anne grabbed Lola's arm, and the girls and Clyde ran off to another safe place, leaving Sincoln and Proto-Lana alone.

"So, looks like it's just the two of us, "sister," Sincoln remarked. "What position would you like to do? Or even better, how about you turn into some kind of animal? Breaking the biological barriers between species sounds like a decent warmup."

Proto-Lana chuckled, which caught Sincoln's attention.

"You're oddly happy for somebody who's going to be physically broken apart in the most ptimal way possible," Sincoln remarked, swaying his hair as he added. "Then again, eons without my divine crotch-spear would make anybody excited to be impaled by it."

"You did _exactly_ what I thought you would do," Proto-Lana smiled. "You prefer to hide, away from all the danger, until your pride gets hurt. Only _then_ do you come out of hiding and face the real world."

"Well, at least I kept my body," Sincoln scoffed with a mocking smirk. "And I also didn't land in the same junkyard you and the other rejects landed."

Proto-Lana's eye twitched. "I'm the _rightful_ and _eternal_ ruler of the Lana caste, just like our sisters and their castes."

"You and those sentient carcasses are a bunch of living relics that continue living because you refuse to believe your era is over," Sincoln folded his arms. "And you even refuse to admit your "successors" are much better than you could ever hope to be! Both in general, _and_ in bed!"

Sincoln flashed a prideful grin. "They're my children, after all!"

Proto-Lana got enveloped in a navy blue aura. "You being their father has _nothing_ to do with them being better!"

Sincoln shook his head as he got enveloped in an orange aura. "Of course it does! After all, the perfect being can only breed perfect children."

Proto-Lana bared her claws and clashed with Sincoln, before taking the fight to the skies.

 _Back with the Sadie Hawkins Quartet and Lori and Leni..._

"There's a giant monster being summoned as we speak, and we were told to tell everybody about it so you could get out of here while you still had the chance!" Polly explained to the eldest sisters.

"And if for some reason you doubt us," Haiku pointed at the pillar of light nearby. "That's all the proof you need."

The duo looked at the pillar, and Leni said, "Huh, how come, like, nobody's noticed that yet?"

"Did you bring it up to them while you were telling them what happened?" Lori inquired.

The quartet's ensuing silence spoke for itself.

"Listen, we understand that you're worried for our sisters," Lori sighed somberly. "But... There's nothing we can do."

"What are you talking about?!" Tabby snapped. "You're practically their leaders! Just tell them to get up and run away."

"It's not as simple as that," Leni looked at the ground. "Our sisters are, like, still processing what they've discovered about our world."

"And some of them are literally having a harder time adjusting than the others," Lori added, glancing at her nearby siblings. "So, if they see a chance to ignore the new reality placed upon them, and focus on the one they've known their whole life, they'll take it."

Leni put a hand on her cheek. "And, like, nothing will change their minds, not even us."

"Oh come on, that's ridiculous!" Haiku snapped. "You're probably stronger than all your siblings combined! What's stopping you from convincing them to get out of here?!"

"It's not a what," Lori corrected.

"It's a who," Leni added sadly. "Two of them, in fact."

"For now, the best thing we can do is tell _you_ to get out of here while you still can," Lori said. "Our sisters and us will defend ourselves somehow."

Shocked at the statement, but having no ideas left, the quartet left the spot, but not before Haiku warned:

"If something bad happens to your sisters, _e_ _ _specially__ Lucy, I'm going to say some mean things to you!"

And once she had left, Leni whispered to Lori, "Let's make sure nothing bad happens. I, like, don't want to hear mean things being said at me."

Lori, for her part, just chuckled and brushed Leni's hair.

 _Meanwhile, back with the Team..._

Lola, Ronnie Anne, and Clyde met with Carol and Lana, who punched Claire away into a rock, knocking her out moments before noticing their presence.

"What are you doing back here?!" Lana snapped. "Did you check if Lincoln was okay?!"

Lola hesitated. "Technically yeah, but he's acting totally different: he's a lot more perverted and mean than before."

Upon hearing the description, Carol flinched. "Did he have spade-shaped pupils?!"

Lola just nodded, confirming Carol's fears.

"Okay, that's it, we need to get out of here!" Carol stated. "If your brother turned into who I think he turned to, then we're in grave danger!"

"Why's that?" Lana inquired, raising an eyebrow. "Who could he have turned into?"

"His original self!" Carol shouted. "The Lincoln that destroyed the original reality and caused this whole meses in the first place!"

The twins flinched at the idea, then exchanged worried looks before Claire rised out of the rubble, ready to fight some more.

"Claire, we don't have time for this!" Lana snapped at the toddler. "My brother might have turned into a monster! We're all goners if we stay here!"

"I know that! But I have my orders!" Claire bared her claws. "And since it's either die by my matriarch's hand, or Lincoln's hand, I'd rather be killed by my matriarch!"

And as that happened, Proto-Lana and Sincoln's clashed lead then to stop in the sky, the guy sporting a baffled look.

"How is this possible?!" Sincoln yelled, gritting his teeth. "You should be clamoring for mercy, yet you're dodging everything I throw at you!"

Then, he got an idea. "Oh, I see, you're just playing hard to get, aren't you?"

Sincoln's aura grew more volatile. "I _hate_ girls that do that! Your purpose is thid new world is to give birth, nothing more! So stop showing resistance and _get f*cked_ ** _in_** ** _every sense of the word!_** "

"Huh, a censored swear sword," Proto-Lana smirked. "So Luan still has some kind of control over you."

Lincoln yelled "F*CK YOU!" at the top of his lungs before he hissed:

"I didn't want things to go like this, but you gave me no choice!"

Sincoln was surrounded in an orange aura. "Beg for mercy while you still can, reject! Because I'm going to throw you into a world of pain very soon!"

Proto-Lana's answer was blunt: "Do you ever shut up?"

Sincoln frowned. "Shut _this_ up! **Savinoken!** "

The boy screamed as he was surrounded by a fiery orange aura, which was volatile it made the water violently ripple, and the ground shake.

Which was _still_ not enough to interrupt the beast's summoning.

"Here it is! My ultimate technique!" Sincoln boasted. "With this power, I'll pierxe you so hard, _I will impale whatever abomination is residing inside of you!_ So, are you ready to beg for mercy!?"

Proto-Lana just smiled with confidence, and powered up to 5 percent of her power, enveloping her in a flowy, navy blue aura, and turning her sclera black, while her pupils became navy blue.

Sincoln narrowed his eyes. "I'll take that as a no."

The prototype charged towards the empowered prototype plumber, shouting:

"So be it!"

Another clash happened, this one being so potent, the team and Claire almost lost their balance.

"Wait a minute, while this is happening, the monster's still being summoned, right?!" Carol remarked. "You go to the spot it's being summoned and prevent it in any way you can!"

Ronnie Anne and Clyde nodded and headed after the spot, while Lola remained behind and went to Lana's side.

"Lola, why are you still here!?" the plumber snapped at her sister.

"I'm here to help you with Claire!" Lola answered. "Ronnie Anne and Clyde should be strong enough to deal with the summon on their own so-"

"Nuh uh, I'm not letting you risk your life!" Lana turned to Carol. "Can't you teleport her or push her to the pillar thing!?"

"The more portals I use, the more worn out I become!" Carol explained as the movement stopped. "I can't just spam them whenever I want!"

Lana gritted her teeth and growled in exasperation. And as that happened, Clyde and Ronnie Anne confronted the summoned.

"Hey, you!" Ronnie exclaimed, getting Skippy's attention. "Stop what you're doing right now!"

"Don't you think, if that was an option, that I would've done so already?!" Skippy snapped in return. "Once started, the summoning cannot be interrupted by any means!"

"Oh really?" Ronnie Anne charged some energy in a lighting ball. "Let's test that theory, shall we?!"

"Ronnie wait!" Clyde exclaimed. "There has to be another way to do it!"

The tomboy didn't listen, and shot her lighting sphere at the pillar, causing Liam and hattie to fly off into the water as the pillar ceased to exist. Some bubbles popped right in the spot the duo were submerged in...

And then, the bubbles stopped.

"Did we do it?" Ronnie Anne asked. "For the love of Lame-O, please tell me we did!"

And then another clash happened, sending Ronnie Anne, Skippy, and Clyde flying away as Sincoln and Proto-Lana took a break from the constant clashing.

Notable, while Sincoln was catching his breath, Proto-Lana didn't look tired at all.

"I guess it's time I pull some tricks up my pants!" Sincoln proclaimed. "You know, 'cause I don't have any sleeves to speak of and-whatever, nobody cares!"

Sincoln formed a diamond shape with his arms and exclaimed:

"Diamond Flash!"

...But nothing happened.

"What the... How..." Sincoln shook it off and aimed his arm at the proto-plumber. "Diamond Machine Gun!"

Again, nothing happened.

Sincoln bit his lip, flipped the bird at Proto-Lana and yelled: "Diamond Middle Finger Beam!"

Tired of humoring the guy, Proto-Lana tackled him straight in the stomach hard enough to cancel the savinoken as she scoffed:

"If you couldn't use the actual skills, what makes you think you'll be able to use one you just made up?"

"How?! _Why?!_ I should be pinning _you_ against the ground, I should be _skewering you alive_ until you _beg for_ ** _mercy_**!" Sincoln whined as he tried to stand up. " _Why can't I use Lola's powers!?_ "

"You restarted the entire universe, and went through a rebirth, and you expected to keep your powers?" Proto-Lana chuckled. "You really are a fool, you know that?"

"You literal bitch, you did this, didn't you!?" Sincoln hissed, throwing a furious glare at Proto-Lana. "What did you do to me?! I **demand** that you-"

Without warning, Proto-Lana covered her knee in rocks and kneed the boy in the stomach, causing him to fall even closer to the point of unconsciousness.

"You're in no position to demand anything, "brother." Proto-Lana smiled maliciously. "You did this to yourself, after all."

Sincoln fell unconscious, turning back to Lincoln in the process, and Proto-Lana kicked him straight towards the horrified team, who caught the boy just as the hydra stepped out of the water, and raised it's two heads.

And with a titanic roar, the hydra made it's presence known, much to Proto-Lana's delight.

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview...**

"Hi everybody, Skippy here."

The Sadie Hawkins dates watched at the hydra in the horizon, with Haiku looking particularly horrified.

"Well, the deed is done, and the hydra has been unleashed."

Giggles and Tabby then tried to comfort the panicky Haiku, with no success. Haiku only stopped shivering when she saw Polly's angry look.

"But something about it feels... Different, somehow..."

Meanwhile, at the organization, Mr. and Mrs. Loud nodded and separated, the former going to Flip and the latter going to Becky.

"Wait... Could it be?"

Mr. Loud and Flip talked while images of the progenitors flashed on the screen.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Becky handed Mrs. Loud some papers, which she then handed to Greg, who read them as he talked with the woman.

"The Hydra Has Been Summoned! Reactions All Across Royal Woods!"

Next, in the Lincolnism Church, the lincolnists freaked out as they saw the hydra, with the biker trio ironically trying to keep everybody calm.

"Don't miss it!"

The trio, by Mabel's request, go to the docking bay, where they find Paige arguing with a peculiar pair, Cookie and Beverly...


	23. Hydraulic Warning

**Okay, so, last chapter ended with the hydra being successfully summoned while the Louds were still at the beach, despite the Sadie Hawkins dates' efforts.**

 **You could consider this a bit more of a side-chapter, because it mostly deals with the reactions of several characters to the hydra's emergence, but don't worry, I'll try to make this as entertaining as the usual chapter.**

 **But before we head there, let's answer some reviews!**

 ** **1) Hatoralo:****

 ** *** Maybe, but if that's the case, Isn't it fitting SINCOLN was the first one to use it?****

 ** *** That's kinda the point.****

 ** **2) Nobody245:****

 ** *** Yeah, Sincoln may have been... Well, Sincoln, but that doesn't excuse their own actions.****

 ** **3) animehero1000:****

 ** *** Just a list, I think But you never know.****

 ** *** Do they?****

 ** *** Thank you, I'm glad you hate him like that. :)****

 ** *** Yeah, that will definitely solve things and not cause any more problems XD****

 ** **4) ChernoMan:****

 ** *** Yup, it was destroyed for a reason.****

 ** *** I think I can see it as arbitrary filler. However, that doesn't change the fact that the shocking events of the Proto-Lola arc happened recently, so even then, they probably needed a breather.****

 ** **5) Observant Guest:****

 ** *** So much mystery!****

 ** *** Who's Stella?****

 ** *** Yup, things aren't looking good so far.****

 ** *** Yeah, I wouldn't rush you, though, I'm not going to update the story that often for now: I finish the current mini arc at my own pace, then take a break to work on other stuff.****

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 23: The Hydra Has Been Summoned! Reactions All Across Royal Woods!**

* * *

Back where we left off, the Sadie Hawkins dates stared at the horizon, where they saw the hydra slowly coming out of the water as the Loud sisters got ready to try fight back.

"Those gals are nutters if they think they can take care of that thing on their own," Tabby remarked. "Come on, we gotta go help them!"

Tabby took a step forward, but she was stopped by Polly as Giggles said, "I like how you said the sisters were nuts, yet decided on doing something just as crazy."

"They need help!" Tabby pointed out.

"But we can't just go up there and attack like nothing," Polly replied. "We need to come up with a plan first."

"Alright, but what _can_ we do?" Tabby turned to face the hydra. "That thing is something entirely out of this world!"

Polly scratched her chin, and soon got an idea. "Haiku, you've dealt with these kind of monsters before, right?"

However, Polly got quite the surprise when she saw Haiku on her knees, her hands covering her ears as she chanted " _this isn't happening"_ repeatedly.

"Huh, she's usually a bit less... terrified, when dealing with interdimensional creatures," Polly remarked.

"Giggles, can you get her attention?" Tabby asked the clown girl.

"That's easy," Giggles looked at Haiku, and scratched the back of her head. "Whether I can get her to cooperate with us, however, is gonna be a challenge."

Giggles promptly walked to the praying goth's side, and slowly put a hand on her shoulder, "hey-"

Haiku shrieked as she turned around and slapped Giggles, leaving a red handprint on the clown girl's cheek. "S-Sorry, Giggles, you caught me off-guard."

"Yeah, I noticed," Giggles rubbed her slapped cheek. "Anyway, Tabby and Polly need you to help them brainstorm a plan to deal with that monster."

"What!? They are madwomen!" Haiku stood up. "There's no way the four of us can hope to do anything to that... monstrosity!"

"Okay, Haiku, what's up with you?" Polly asked as she and Tabby walked to the goth and clown duo. "You're usually more excited to deal with demons and monsters!"

"Yeah, but this monster is different!" Haiku glanced at the hydra. "It may look like a normal hydra, but I can sense that there's something wrong with it on the inside!"

"How does that change the fact you've dealt with stuff like this before?" Giggles asked. "Listen, we just need you to help us come up with a plan to kill that thing-"

Haiku covered her ears and turned away before yelling "no" at the top of her lungs.

"Okay, "killing" the beast might be easier said than done," Tabby remarked as she approached Haiku. "How about we just hurt it then?"

Haiku repeated what she did, loud "no!" included, and she wound up facing Giggles.

"How about we just distract it, then?" the clown girl suggested.

For the third time, Haiku repeated her motions, though she made sure that when she turned, she didn't face anybody.

"So you're just gonna let Clyde and Lucy get hurt?"

Haiku uncovered her ears and turned to see Polly Pain giving her a stern look.

"Listen up, while you're here, sulking and cowering about the thought of fighting that thing, Lucy and Clyde are back there, doing everything possible just to survive this madness!"

Haiku raised an eyebrow. "Clyde's not fighting the hydra-"

Polly waved her hand in a dismissive manner. "Doesn't matter, he's still risking his life fighting against one of the progenitors."

And then, the quartet heard a vehicle arrive, and they turned to see what vehicle had arrived: The Royal Woods new channel van.

"The new channel crew?" Tabby blurted.

"They must be here to film a report about the hydra," Giggles guessed. "I mean, I'd do the same if a giant monster suddenly appeared."

"And that's another reason to help Lucy and the rest," Polly spoke, getting Haiku's attention once more. "While the news crew will film them doing their best to survive, you'll probably end up looking like a complete coward in the background."

Haiku gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes as Polly leaned forward and asked:

"So, what will you do, Haiku?"

The gothic poet stood up and whipped her hair at Polly, who wasn't fazed by the attack at all.

"I'm not gonna stay here, that's for sure!" Haiku snapped. "Let's look for a safe spot so we can discuss the plan."

Giggles looked around, then spotted some tents. "Maybe those tents could work?"

Haiku nodded. "Alright, let's go there."

Haiku took a couple steps towards the tents, then turned back to Polly, who sported a satisfied smile.

"Just to make one thing clear, I'm only agreeing to help you because Lucy and Clyde are in danger, okay?" Haiku sternly pointed out. "Once they're out of harm's way, I'll leave too, and nothing you say will convince me to fight that thing again, got it!"

"Yes, Haiku, we get it," Polly rolled her eyes. "Go to the rendezvous point already, will ya?"

Haiku went "Hmph!" and stomped her way to the safe area where the plan would be discussed.

Tabby promptly scoffed, "Well least she's still easier to deal with than Sam."

Giggles winced. "Please tell me you're joking."

Tabby bluntly stated, "I'm serious."

Giggles' smiled nervously. "Are you sure?"

Polly bluntly added, "She's serious."

Giggles sighed, and the girls followed Haiku to the tents just as the news crew got ready to film the scene.

 _The Organization..._

Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Shrinivas, Mrs. DiMartino, Rita, Lynn Sr., and Coach Pacowski all looked at a screen filled with static, which was slowly replaced by Catherine, the news reporter, filming at the beach, with the hydra roaring in the background.

"This is Catherine Sweetwater speaking from the beach of Royal Woods," Catherine spoke as she gently touched her ear. "Guys, can you hear?"

"We can hear you loud and clear, Catherine," Lynn Sr. stated.

"I'm located at the beach of Royal Woods, where, as you can see behind me, a hydra has risen from the water," Catherine explained as the camera then focused on the hydra, which was attacking the Loud siblings. "I'll switch to the public version to warn the citizens not to come here, you need to gear up and head over here, right now! I'll send the coordinates soon."

The screen turned to static, and a papersheet was printed afterwards, containing the coordinates to the beach.

"Looks like we're going to the beach," Mrs. Johnson sighed as she grabbed the coordinates.

"Sadly, we're going there to work, not to relax," Mrs. Shrinivas said.

Johnson narrowed her eyes and muttered, "Son of a beach..."

"I'll still bring my tankini, just to be sure!" Mrs. DiMartino chirped.

"You're kidding, right?" Mrs. Shrinivas sternly asked.

"Of course I am, S!" DiMartino wrapped her arm around Shrinivas' shoulder. "We need to keep the skin-armor ratio balanced, right?"

"We're gonna go there in full armor, DiMartino," Mrs. Johnson bluntly stated, causing DiMartino to flinch. "Otherwise, we won't be able to do anything against the hydra."

DiMartino put a pouty face. "B-But I wanted to show of my skin!"

"If you're lucky, the hydra will strike you hard enough to shed some layers of your armor so your skin's exposed," Mrs. Johnson rolled her eyes. "Now let's go and put on the suits, we got no time to waste."

Shrinivas grabbed DiMartino and dragged her with her off to the changing rooms as DiMartino tried to break free, flailing her arms and all.

"Those three sure are something, huh?" Pacowski remarked, before remembering something. "Oh, right, Becky just finished her analysis on the Lolaspace dimension, where Lindsey's located, and Flip has found a particular flaw in your "idea" to fight the progenitors, and he needs you to come over so he can explain what he found."

The parents exchanged looks, and Rita immediately said, "I'll go see Becky, you go see Flip."

Lynn Sr. nodded, and the couple separated to go see their stuff as Pacowski went back to the monitors.

 _With Lynn Sr..._

The Loud patriarch entered a laboratory-pawn shop hybrid of sorts, where he saw Flip checking something when he noticed him.

"Ah, Mr. Loud! I thought your wife was going to come, so I was just finishing building a pair of voice-cancelling earphones," Flip then revealed said earphones. "It will drown out any voices besides your own, but all other sound will play as normal. The prototype costs 10 bucks."

"Leave that for later, Flip, I don't feel like getting ripped off yet," Lynn Sr. stated, earning a disappointed look from Flip. "I was told you found a problem concerning Rita's plan?"

"Ah yes, her anti-progenitor weaponry," Flip snapped his fingers, and the screen behind him changed, showcasing most of the progenitors. "It involves taking the progenitors' blood and build weapons with it?"

"Yeah, that's the gist of it," Lynn Sr. raised an eyebrow. "What about it?"

"Well, I took another, closer look at the progenitors themselves, and... they don't seem to have blood," Flip snapped his fingers again, which brought up a separate screen that flashed "NEGATIVE" over the progenitors themselves. "It doesn't make sense, everything about us was made in the image of the progenitors, powerful as they are, that includes blood and organs. Seeing this, it's like they're aren't even alive."

"And how did even you find out about this if analyzing a progenitor is a deathwish?" Lynn Sr. pointed out.

"I didn't know from the start, I just noticed an odd sentence in one of those lincolnist books I "borrowed" from their base of operation," Flip took out and opened said book. "And so, the old progenitors shall perish along with the old reality, and a new reality shall be born from the ashes, and new progenitors will replace them." It never says that the old progenitors would revive."

Lynn Sr. shrugged. "So?"

"Well, this is just a theory I have, but what if the progenitors we are dealing with... are basically zombies?" Flip suggested. "Like, ever heard of revenants? Undead creatures that rise from the grave to torment the living? Something like that."

Lynn Sr. turned to face the image of the progenitors and the flashing "NEGATIVE" word, with growing worry...

 _With Rita..._

The Loud matriarch approached Becky, who was sitting in front of several monitors, one of which was projected from her birthmark.

"Hi, Becky," Rita greeted, getting the redhead's attention. "You said you finished your-"

"Analysis of Lindsey's whereabouts?" Becky interjected as she handed the woman some documents. "Yes, she's currently in the Lolaspace dimension, obviously, where... well, read the report.

Rita obliged, and she quickly read through the documents, but it wasn't long before she spotted something peculiar...

"Increase in muscle mass... higher agility... progress in caste abilities..."

From these words, Rita came to a conclusion: "She's been training?"

"Indeed, now the question we need to ask is, who's training her?" Becky remembered something. "Also, you should go look for Mr. Universe, he's probably worried sick of his daughter's condition."

"Oh, right," Rita nodded. "Thanks again for the information."

Becky rolled her eyes and went back to her business as Rita ran off to deliver the documents to Mr. Universe.

She checked some laboratories, the meeting rooms, but no matter where she went, Mr. Universe was nowhere to be found.

"He's not here either!" Rita exclaimed. "How hard can it be to find a muscular hunk like him?! I mean, I found my husband pretty easily!"

"Rita?"

The woman screamed and turned around to see it was just Greg, the lanky man from before.

"Oh, it's just you, Greg," Rita took a deep breath. "Sorry, I got distracted; I'm looking for Mr. Universe to give him these documents about his daughter's whereabouts-"

"Lindsey's whereabouts?!" Greg snatched the documents. "Where did you-?!"

"Becky," Rita blurted.

"Right," Greg calmed down and looked at the documents. "So, what did she find?"

"Lindsey's fine, but she's grown muscle mass, gotten better at using her caste's abilities, and other stuff that implies she's been training," Rita explained, scratching the back of her head. "You think that, now that Lola's no longer in the picture, she's started focusing on other things?"

"The girl that's spent well over a year trying to beat Lola Loud, who's now trapped in a dimension where Lola's counterpart rules supreme, started focusing on other stuff?" Greg shook his head. "Sounds unlikely. If she's been training, then somebody must be training her."

Greg then remembered something. "Did Becky find out anything about Winston?"

Rita shook her head. "I didn't ask her, why?"

"Hmm... nevermind, I got curious," Greg waved his hand. "Listen, I'll deliver these documents to Mr. Universe, you go check what your husband's doing."

Greg scoffed. "Make sure he's not trying to form a harem with the teacher trio."

Rita gasped and laughed as she gently jabbed Greg in the shoulder... which seemed to be enough to make him rub it.

"Okay, I'll go now," Rita sighed. "Thanks for the help, Greg."

The man nodded, and watched Rita as she left. He waited until she was gone before he made his way deeper into the organization, while occassionally glancing at the documents with a curious look...

 _Sweetwater Mansion..._

The spacious mansion of the Sweetwater family was enveloped in an eerie silence, with the only sound coming from the sprayer that Chandler was using to clean... well, everything.

Penelope was also there, watching the boy work his butt off to keep the place clean.

"Chandler, you've been cleaning for 2 hours straight!" Penelope remarked with a concerned tone. "Don't you wanna take a break?"

The boy didn't respond, he just continued cleaning.

"Listen, I know you're worried for Lindsey and you want to take your mind off her, but there has to be a better way to do it," Penelope then got an idea. "I know! How about you help me prepare the feast for the bully victims?"

After a short silence, Chandler sternly stated, "Sorry, too busy."

Penelope sighed and walked to the couch, where she sat down as she said, "I'm just trying to help you, Chandler, give me some-"

However, as soon as Penelope put her feet on the table, Chandler left what he was doing, and he glared at the redhead as he barked, while bathing in light blue lighting:

"Get. Your feet. Off the table!"

Penelope obliged, and Chandler calmed down before he cleaned the spot where the feet were. A moment later, the phone rang, and Chandler went to answer it as Penelope continued his cleaning for him.

"Hello, this is the Sweetwater Mansion," Chandler greeted with a deadpan tone. "How can I help you?"

"Chandler, boy!"

The guy instantly recognized the voice. "Mr. Universe?!"

"That's me indeed! And I bring good news!" Mr. Universe answered. "You see, we got some results on Lindsey's whereabouts: She's in another dimension!"

Chandler frowned. "I know that already."

"But she's okay!" Mr. Universe added, bringing a smile to Chandler's face. "In fact, she has shown an increase in most relevant areas like caste abilities, physical health, and so on!"

"That's great!" Chandler chirped.

"But alas, I also bring bad news... and by that, I mean the television does!" Mr. Universe sighed. "Watch the news channel, and you'll know what I mean."

The call ended right then and there. Chandler hung up the phone, went to the couch, and sat down as he turned the tv on the news channel.

"This is Catherine Sweetwater and you're watching the Royal Woods news channel," the reporter woman spoke before moving aside to show the hydra. "A massive creature has risen from the beach of Royal Woods, and we suggest everybody stays safe at home while the authorities take care of the beast-"

The tv turned off as Chandler dropped the remote, with both him and Penelope sporting horrified looks.

"Clyde's still at the beach!" Penelope exclaimed. "We need to rescue him!"

Chandler narrowed his eyes with determination. "No need to tell me twice!"

The redheaded duo ran out of the mansion and Chandler whistled as he and Penelope jumped, just in time to land right on top of an incoming cloud, which flew towards the beach as fast as it could.

 _Meanwhile, with the Lincolnists..._

The Lincolnists, minus the biker trio and Mabel, roared and screamed as Mabel's scream showed the hydra roaring as it prepared to strike.

"Oh no, the hydra's been summoned!" one of the lincolnists exclaimed.

"When it kills the sisters, it'll come for us next!" another lincolnist cried.

"What about Sweet Feet?"

The lincolnists turned around to see Ronnie was the one who spoke. "Aren't you worried for him too?"

"There's nothing to worry about; the lord and savior's almighty and invincible!" one of the lincolnists replied. "The question's whether he'll fight that thing or not!"

"He most likely won't, though," another lincolnist shrugged. "After all, he has better things to do than save the butts of his ungrateful sisters."

"Yeah, he gave so much for them, and they continue to treat him like crap!" another lincolnist sternly stated. "They can take care of themselves, and if they can't, then they should've thought about it twice before-"

"Okay, that's enough," Mabel got off her chair and grabbed the biker trio's hands. "We're gonna go outside to take some fresh air, you keep watching the screen."

The sweater girl left the room with the trio, while the lincolnists went back to having their faces glued to the screen.

And as soon as they were out, Mabel handed the girls a map. "Head to the docking bay using this map and convince Paige to take you with her."

"Where is she going?" Mindy asked.

"And why can't we stay here with you?" Cindy added.

"Let me be blunt: I honestly believe it's a better idea for you to go with Paige than remain here, mostly because I'm worried one of the "purist" lincolnists will do something to you," Mabel explained. "As for where is she going, you can ask her when you meet her, but for now, you must go _now_ , got it?"

The trio nodded, and they ran deeper into the building, following the map until they reached the docking bay.

Once there, they saw Paige talking with a pair of brunettes, one fair-skinned, the other dark-skinned, with the former sporting purple eyes.

"Cookie, Beverly, for the love of Lincoln, step out of the way!" Paige snapped. "We're in a dire situation and the last thing I need is for you two to get in my way!"

"Listen, I know you want to keep those at the beach safe, but you're one of the very few sane people in the church!" the dark-skinned girl, Beverly, answered. "Only you can help keep the rest of the lincolnists at bay!"

"Besides, even if you went to the beach, your help would be arbitrary at best," the fair-skinned girl added. "The lord and savior can take care of himself, _and_ he has. Ronnie Anne by his side! He doesn't need you now, just like how he's never needed you before!"

"What's going on?" Ronnie asked as she and the trio walked to Paige's side.

"Nothing, girls, don't worry, I'm just trying to get a pair of mules to listen," Paige patted Ronnie's head as she sternly turned back to the duo. "I need to go to the beach to help with the hydra, this has nothing to do with Lincoln."

"It _never_ has anything to do with Lincoln when it comes to you!" Cookie snapped. "You're one of his lovers, you're supposed to be thinking about him constantly! And yet you'd rather think about everybody else but him! Are you with Lincoln, or with the heathen masses that refuse to give him the respect he deserves!?"

Paige narrowed her eyes as she lifted a hand, with Cookie being enveloped in a green aura as she slowly floated, then levitated above the ground. Just as she noticed this, however, Cookie screamed as she was sent flying towards some machines by a single motion from Paige's hand, with the girl audibly crashing as the blonde lincolnist gave a fierce glare to Beverly.

"I'll, uh, go see if she's alright," Beverly said as she nervously walked past Paige. "Sorry for her behavior-"

"Go see her already," Paige barked.

The girl obliged, and as soon as she left, Paige walked towards one of the mechas, with the biker trio following her inside.

"What did you do to Cookie?" Ronnie inquired.

"She deserved it, of course, but still, what did you do?" Mindy added.

"A little something called telekinesis, the ability to lift objects using the mind," Paige hastily explained as she reached for her back. "Everybody in my caste can do it."

Paige took out her Bun-Bun from her back and put it in a square space in front of the driver's seat. "Ready to power this thing up?"

The Bun-Bun saluted, and Paige closed the space as she turned the machine on. As for the trio, they sat a couple seats behind the pilot.

"Is it just me, or does this robot thing seem a little too... big?" Cindy asked.

"It's just you, this is a small mecha," Paige casually answered. "Alright, we're ready to go!"

And so, without wasting time, Paige piloted the mecha and made it run all the way towards the exit, taking a massive leap before she reached the edge.

As she fell, and ignoring the trio's screams of fear, Paige pulled a lever, and the mecha sprouted a pair of wings from it's back, which it used to propulse itself up to the sky, with the trio's screams turning into laughs of joy as they realized they were flying.

"Next stop," Paige input some coordinates in a keyboard. "The beach!"

The mecha flew forward, heading directly towards the designated destination.

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Hi everybody, Carol here!"

The team reacted to the hydra's arrival, and tried attacking it.

"The hydra is here, and Lincoln's been knocked out."

As the sisters and friends fought against the thing, the Sadie Hawkins dates arrived and joined the fight, while Lucy talked with Lori and Leni.

"Can't say this day's been good so far."

Meanwhile, the team surrounded the unconscious Lincoln, and Proto-Lana looked at the hydra.

"Well, only one thing left to do."

Proto-Lana angered Lana through some words, until Carol stepped in.

"I'll have to stall for time!"

Proto-Lana and Carol exchanged looks, then fought for a while.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Sam spotted the hydra in the distance, and then, back with the team, Ronnie Anne and Clyde interrogated Skippy.

"Everyone Versus the Hydra! Going Into the Deep End!"

A worried Leni talked with Lori, who smiled with confidence as they watched a helicopter arriving.

"Don't miss it!"

Finally, Ronnie Anne and Lucy stopped right on their tracks, and saw as a peculiar face struck the hydra:

Mr. Universe.


	24. The Deep End

**In the original version of this arc, only some of the Louds and their friends fought the hydra. In this rewrite, they're joined by the organization, the only sane Lincolnists of the bunch, and Penelope and Chandler. Could they have dealt with the hydra on their own? I dunno.**

 **So anyway, besides a massive fight with the hydra, we'll also have a new location introduced, one that may make you question how much of the new reality is actually new.**

 **But first, let's answer reviews!:**

 ** **1) Nobody245: Yeah, she'll get quite a humbling.****

 ** **2) ChernoMan: By face reveal, you mean her information?****

 ** **3) Hatoralo: Easier said than done, pal XD****

 ** **4) animehero1000:****

 ** *** Yeah, maybe.****

 ** *** Do Penelope and Chandler alone count as half?****

 ** *** Actually...****

 ** **5) Observant Guest:****

 ** *** Yeah.****

 ** *** That was totally intentional.****

 ** *** Oh yeah, that was something I did notice, but I forgot to bring it up in previous chapters. Sorry.****

 ** *** Ah, her. Yeah, I guess I can shove her into the plot.****

 ** *** Oh, you'll see soon. You'll see soon.****

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 24: Everyone Versus the Hydra! Going Into the Deep End!**

* * *

The hydra took heavy steps as it reached the shore, with everybody present looking at the monstrosity in shock and horror.

"I told you that what Polly said sounded legit," Margo stated, shaking her head. "You were the one who decided to blow her off, Lynn."

"Can you blame me?! Even if she sounded serious, it sounded like a bad prank!" Lynn snapped in return. "I mean, a giant sea monster being summoned?! If one of the progenitors was involved, then-"

"Why do you say that like there are other explanations?" Margo raised an eyebrow. "Unless you know anybody else with the ability to summon creatures from another dimension, a progenitor being involved was the most logical conclusion."

"I'm sorry, but, what's a progenitor?" Kiki asked, scratching her head. "You're kinda talking about that as if I was supposed to know already."

"It's a long story, but let me try to recap," Lynn took a deep breath. "My siblings and I are apparently gods of this world, and we have copycats of us coming from the world before this one, who want to kill us!"

"That didn't sound like a long story at all," Kiki remarked.

"Be thankful for that," Margo cracked her knuckles. "Anyway, enough talking, let's kick that thing's butt!"

Lynn and Kiki nodded in agreement, the latter with slight hesitation, and they rushed forward to the beast as Luan and Luna stared at the monster, the latter looking determined while the former looked terrified.

However, Luan's terror only intensified as she spotted Lucy, paralyzed in fear, desperately crawling away as one of the hydra's feet almost stomped her. Luan promptly ran to Lucy, grabbed her, than dragged her away before she was squished by the monster foot.

"I can't believe it, the girls were right about the monster!" Lucy exclaimed, shivering in terror. "We should've left while we still had the chance!"

"You can't be Thunderstuck Luce!" Luna exclaimed as she ran past the girls and summoned her energy axe. "Either you help us fight it, or you run to safety!"

Luna leaped up alongside Lynn towards the hydra, leaving Luan and Lucy on the ground. However, they soon separated: Luan remained in her spot and channeled her hydrokinesis while Lucy ran all the way back to Lori and Leni, who were watching the fight from the sidelines.

"Lori! Leni! There's a giant monster here!" Lucy exclaimed, getting her sisters' attention. "You're the strongest out of all of us, you have to help us!"

The girls exchanged forlorn looks, then Lori said, "We're sorry, Lucy, but we literally can't do anything."

"Why not?!" Lucy asked.

Leni crouched down and touched Lucy's forehead, giving the girl a vision of a Lori and Leni lookalike, heavily hidden in shadows.

"They're the reason," Leni answered as the vision ended. "They, like, keep a constant watch on us, and if we "defy" our roles as mentors, they'll stop us."

"Defy your role as mentors?" Lucy raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

"Basically, we must let you and the rest of our sisters literally deal with the problem on your own," Lori explained. "We can give you advice, and a helping hand once in a while, but we can't deal with the problem ourselves."

Just as Lucy frowned with worry, the goth remembered something and ran away, with Leni almost managing to grab her as she said:

"Lucy where are you going?!"

The goth turned to her sisters and, still running, shouted:

"If you can't help us, then I'll go look for the one person who can!"

Shortly afterwards, the Sadie Hawkins dates arrived and leaped into the fight, doing whatever they could to attack the monster: Polly shot fireballs, Haiku swung a scythe to send some waves at the beast, Tabby screamed at it, sending sound and shockwaves, and Giggles simply pulled whatever random nonsense she could get from her back.

"Lynn, it's your friend Polly and some other girls!" Kiki exclaimed, getting the sisters to notice the dates.

"Polly, what the heck are you doing here?!" Lynn shouted.

"Giving you a hand however we can!" Polly shouted back, before flashing a smirk. "Or do you honestly think you can deal with this thing on your own?"

The Louds turned back to the beast, who roared as Luna proclaimed:

"We'll take whatever help we can get!"

 ** _Meanwhile, with the team..._**

Lola, Ronnie Anne, Carol, and Lana surrounded the unconscious Lincoln before they turned to face Proto-Lana, who was staring at the hydra in the distance.

"Just as I expected, the hydra is keeping the rest of the offspring occupied," Proto-Lana turned to face the team. "Which means I only need to deal with a bunch of prey and some small-time predators."

"How dare you beat up my brother?!" Lana yelled.

"How dare _you_ meddle with the animal kingdom?" Proto-Lana asked in return. " _Specially_ with your pitiful knowledge of the food chain?"

Lana raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't listen to her, Lana!" Lola shouted. "She's trying to get in your head!"

"Don't worry, Lola," Lana stated, narrowing her eyes. "Whatever this faker wants to say, there's no way she has any proof to back it up!"

"Oh really? Then what do you consider that one time you and Lincoln freed the frogs in his class?" Proto-Lana smirked. "Not all of them could've been able to reach the wilderness, you know?"

Lana's eyes widened as her counterpart continued:

"Or all those times you whined and cried until your "parents" allowed you to adopt some random stray animal you found?"

Lana flinched and took a step back. "H-How did you-?!"

"Or that time where you saved the termites from being exterminated?" Proto-Lana shook her head. "Your family's forced to stay with Ruth, and not only are you responsible for it, but you were even awarded for it!"

Proto-Lana chuckled, then outright cackled before scoffing:

"Crying and whining until you get your way? _Doing so at the expense of others, while being rewarded for it_?! **_Receiving no karma for it and learning no lesson about it!?_** "

Proto-Lana smiled deviously. "Sounds like a certain _pageant princess,_ if you ask me."

Lana stomped the ground and sent several stalactites at the prototype, who simply moved to the side to avoid them. She then backflipped into the water, demonstrating once again her ability to walk on it as Lana tried to rush after her, only to be stopped by Carol.

"Lana, don't do anything reckless!" the hybrid caste girl said as she pulled the plumber back. "If she defeats, or worse, _kills_ you right now, we can kiss our chances of defeating her goodbye!"

Carol left Lana with Lola, then glared at Proto-Lana as she stated:

"I'll take care of her."

Carol walked towards the prototype until she reached the water, revealing she too could walk on top of it.

"Did you knew she could do that?" Lana asked her twin sister.

"Lana, you spend more time with Carol than I do," Lola pointed out with an "are you serious?" look. "If you didn't know she could do that, what makes you think I would?"

And while that went on, Ronnie Anne and Clyde dealt with Skippy.

"How do we send that thing back to where you summoned it?!" Ronnie Anne snapped. "Tell us!"

"Listen, once summoned, there's no way to send it back!" Skippy exclaimed. "Not without Mother Lana's help!"

"Well, that's out of the question," Clyde rolled his eyes. "Any way we can kill it?"

"Not on the outside, that's for sure: It's skin is already pretty tough, but Hattie's interference must've made it even stronger, and like the mythological hydra, cutting a head will only result in two more sprouting out," Skippy explained. "The only way I can think of that'd let you kill it is by somehow opening a hole in it's body and attacking their heart."

Skippy frowned. "I honestly can't think of any other way to kill a hybrid hydra."

"Hybrid hydra?"

The kids turned around and spotted Lucy tanding nearby, looking worried as she asked:

"You mean were not fighting a regular old sea monster?"

 ** _Meanwhile, with Sam..._**

The blonde rocker walked around as she scanned the area for Tabby, somehow missing the giant sea monster in the distance.

"Tabby, where are you!" Sam shouted. "Seriously, I take my eyes off you one second and you disappear!"

Miraculously, Sam noticed the giant sea monster, and somehow spotted Tabby across the cluster of characters fighting with it.

However, her attention was soon caught by the sight of Lori and Leni watching the scene, with Lori's mere presence bringing back bad memories.

"You!" Sam snapped loud enough for her voice to echo.

The blonde rocker bolted straight to Lori, who stood unflinching against the musician's furious glare.

"Why are you just standing there while our siblings are fighting that giant monster!?" Sam snapped at the eldest Loudster. "Don't you feel scared for their safety!? They could get killed!"

"You're only adding my siblings to hide the fact you're only worried for _your_ sister, Tabby!" Lori hissed, causing the rocker to flinch. "And if you're so worried for her, why don't _you_ step in and do something about the monster?!"

Sam turned back to look at the hydra, then went back to Lori and yelled:

"Maybe I will!"

The rocker materialized an energy guitar with the same color scheme as Luna's before dashing straight for the monster.

"Lori, are you sure it's such a good idea to let Sam "help" our siblings?" Leni asked her older sister. "I mean, she's not exactly... like, friendly, at all."

"We can only watch and stall for time before the cavalry arrives," Lori bluntly answered.

Leni raised an eyebrow. "What cavalry?"

Lori and Leni turned around to see a helicopter from the organization, as well as the armored teacher trio, flying towards the scene as Lori smiled and confidently said:

"That one."

And while that happened, Sam was spotted by Luna, who was attacking the back of the beast.

"Sam?!" Luna exclaimed, narrowly avoiding being hit by the monster's tail in the process. "What are you doing here?!"

"Not because of you, sorry," Sam answered, focusing solely on the spot she was mutilating. "But because my sister's here, and I want to make sure this thing doesn't hurt her!"

"Wow, you didn't even bother to try sound like you came here for both Tabby and me," Luna sarcastically spoke. "That's so relieving to hear after our heated discussion a while ago."

Sam smirked. "I'm glad we're both on the same page."

Luna growled before she resumed the attack on the beast.

 ** _Back with the Team..._**

Carol and Proto-Lana continued staring sternly at each other while the rest of the team tried to get information out of Skippy.

"So, the hybrid takes a stand once again," Proto-Lana scoffed, before narrowing her eyes. "First you work for us, then you work against us, just when will you decide whose side are you on?"

"I chose that a long time ago!" Carol proclaimed. "And you can bet your butt that I picked the side that's against you!"

"Carol, would you just listen to yourself for a second?" Proto-Lana folded her arms. "You say you're against me, but your mere existence is supposed to be a middle finger to such an idea in the first place."

Carol narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth as the prototype countinued:

"Harut's caste, and Marut's caste, you both belong, yet _don't_ belong to their castes," Proto-Lana shook her head. "Just like how you're against us, but also with us."

"Nonsense!" Carol snapped.

"Nonsense, or truth? Admit it, you're just another victim of the lovechildren's cursed existence," Proto-Lana pointed at Lincoln. "A curse that _he_ knowingly put on you."

Carol turned to look at Lincoln, then slowly turned back to Proto-Lana.

"Think about it, Carol: You will see that we're not the enemies you should worry about, but _him_ ," the prototype plumber narrowed her eyes. "So, what do you say? Will you finally woman up and face reality, or will you keep believing the lies that you've been believing your entire life?"

Carol took a deep breath, then smiled. "I say."

The girl flashed a furious look, revealing her pupils had three colors: Orange, light blue, and turquoise, as she shouted:

"Savinoken!"

Carol was enveloped in an intense orange aura, and she wasted no time in teleporting behind Proto-Lana and kicking her straight into the rocky formation, with the team managing to dodge her in time.

There was little time to rest, however, since Proto-Lana erupted from the rubble and dashed towards Carol, sprouting a pair of wings as she and the hybrid girl clashed and took the battle to the skies.

However, unlike with Sincoln, Proto-Lana quickly lost the upper hand when Carol blocked her incoming attack, then let out a titanic shout, sending her flying straight into the ocean, and falling face-first on it like it was actu floor.

Proto-Lana quickly got up and raised her arms, levitating several rocks before hurling them at Carol, who put two fingers on her forehead as her hand was covered in a green aura.

The rocks promptly stopped before they hit the girl, and she blew some ice breath to cover the rocks in ice, turning them into icicles that Carol threw at the prototype, who just dodged the incoming icicles before using them as platforms to get closer to the hybrid.

Once she was close enough, the prototype beatmaster summoned a trident and lunged it at Carol, only for her to summon a turquoise shield to block it, then morph said shield into a gun before shooting both the trident and the prototype straight into the platform.

Fortunately so, too, since Carol's aura glitched and she felt a sudden, sharp pain in her gut.

"No, dang it, I should have five more minutes before the Savinoken glitched!" Carol said to herself as she clutched her chest. "I need to end this fight quickly!"

Suddenly, Proto-Lana popped up behind Carol and quietly said:

"I agree."

Carol barely had time to look at the prototype before she was sent plummeting with a kick to the gut, crashing right next to the team.

"Carol, are you okay?!" Lola exclaimed as she and Lana went to Carol's side.

"Are you hurt?" Lana inquired as Carol's Savinoken aura dissipated. "I mean, you don't look like it, but just to be sure."

"I'm fine physically, but using the Savinoken and those powers at the same time left me exhausted," Carol snickered. "I guess I was a bit careless there."

"Well, what you did was cool," Ronnie Anne remarked, Clyde and Lucy nodding in agreement. "And hey, you did some damage to not-Mud-O, right?"

"Nah, not really," Carol sheepishly answered. "If anything, I think I made her angry."

Proto-Lana suddenly landed next to Ronnie and kicked her, releasing Skippy and allowing the prototype to morph her arms into wings and swing them hard enough to create a gust that sent everybody else flying away.

"You know what?! Screw you and your existential middle finger, Carol!" Proto-Lana snapped as she grabbed Skippy. "This is between me and Hayyel! And nobody else!"

Proto-Lana sprouted a tail and grabbed Claire with it as she hissed, "Of course, I can't stop you from following me, bit of you do plan to do that, then I'll tell you right now that there's no turning back once you follow me!"

Proto-Lana encased herself, Skippy, Claire, and Watterson in a bubble, and jumped into the water as Lana chased after them, leaping into the ocean as well.

"Lana, wait!" Lola exclaimed as she ran after her sister. "You don't know where-"

"Hold it right there, Lola," Carol said as she stopped the diva on her tracks. "Give her a couple seconds before-"

And then, Lana resurfaced, sporting an overjoyed look.

"I can breath underwater!" Lana chirped. "I can actually, legitimately breath under water!"

"How?" Clyde asked in disbelief.

Lana revealed some gills on her neck. "These things opened up as soon as I entered the water, and they closed when I returned. With these gills, I can breath underwater just fine!"

"Those are great news, Lana!" Lola exclaimed as she went to the edge of the platform. "Give me a high five!"

Lana just raised a concerned eyebrow, confusing her twin.

"What? It's just a high five," Lola replied. "Just because I only have one arm left doesn't mean you need to worry about me."

"Well, regardless, while Lana can breath underwater, the rest of us can't," Carol pointed out. "Luckily, she can fix this."

"I can?" Lana tilted her head.

Carol nodded. "Take a deep breath, and exhale while thinking something like you inflating a bubblegum."

Odd description aside, Lana did as instructed, and she wound up blowing a bubble the size of Carol into existence, surprising the team.

"Wow, you can breath underwater _and_ blow bubbles like that?" Ronnie Anne spoke as Carol went into her bubble. "I gotta admit, that's pretty sweet."

"Okay, we should better get going," Clyde said as he headed to the bubble. "Ronnie Anne, Lucy, since Ronnie's power will be detrimental underwater, and I don't know what Lucy can do, you two help the rest with the hydra. Be careful while fighting that thing, okay?"

And then Ronnie stopped both of them and looked at Lola.

"I just wanted to make one thing clear before you left: I didn't throw the rock at Claire," Ronnie Anne shot a look at Clyde. "The rock came from Nerd-O's direction."

Everybody turned to look at Clyde, who scratched the back of his head.

"Wait, what are you implying, Ronnie Anne?" the boy asked. "That I was somehow able to grab that rock and throw it?"

"Listen, Nerd-O, you definitely have something up your sleeve, and keeping it hidden won't help anybody," Ronnie Anne sternly hissed. "So spit it out, what can you do?"

Clyde adjusted his glasses. "Just a simple "mind over matter" thing, I see something or someone, and I use my mind to levitate them."

"Clyde, if we don't leave now, we'll lose the other me's trail!" Lana shouted.

"I'll be there in a minute!" Clyde replied before turning back to the girl. "Sorry, Ronnie Anne, but-"

"One more thing before you go; If you had the ability to do that, why didn't you use it when we fought?" Ronnie Anne asked, putting her hands on her hips. "You could've easily won the fight that way!"

"Not every battle _needs_ to be finished through brute force, Ronnie Anne," Clyde pointed at his head. "Sometimes, you just gotta _outsmart_ the enemy."

Ronnie Anne sighed and smiled. "Good luck with the impostor."

Clyde returned the smile. "Good luck with the hydra."

The girl looked at the ground as she thought about Clyde's words, while the boy followed the rest of the team and submerged into the water.

Once out of sight, Lucy and Ronnie Anne exchanged looks and ran back to the hydra fight, just in time to see a figure in the distance shouting:

"Here I come!"

The figure fell down at an incredible speed before it clashed against the neck, and practically decapitated it before landing on the body so hard, it made the beast collapse on the ground.

The figure was soon revealed to be Mr. Universe, who flashed a toothy smile as he said:

"Decapitating a hydra like a badass!"

Sam let out a high-pitched scream and grabbed Tabby before running away.

"Dude, where the hell are you going!?" Luna yelled.

"Somewhere far away from masculinity incarnate!" Sam shouted without looking back. "I need to protect Tabby from his "straightening" presence!"

The whole battlefield went silent as Luna facepalmed, and the beast's body shook before sprouting two more heads, which were about to shoot another blast from their mouths before Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. DiMartino landed on them and closed their mouths, causing the beams to burst inside and disorient the monster for a moment.

"Who the heck are you guys?" Luan inquired as Lucy and Ronnie Anne arrived. "Not Mr. Universe, the masked ladies."

"They don't talk much, young woman!" Mr. Universe stated before he leaped and landed at the shore. "We're here to help you deal with this monstrosity!"

"Then help us get inside it's body!" Lucy exclaimed, getting the man's attention. "That's the only way we'll kill it!"

Everybody looked at Lucy for a second before the beast started recovering consciousness, putting them back on edge.

"We'll distract the monster!" Luna exclaimed, splitting her energy guitar into _two_ energy guitars. "You guys come up with a plan to kill this thing!"

The attacks resumed on the beast as soon as it prepared another attack, and Lucy, Ronnie Anne, Luan, and Mr. Universe reunited to come up with a plan to get inside the belly of the beast...

 ** _Back underwater..._**

The team rolled their bubbles deeper into the depths while following Lana, who swam as he somehow managed to smell the scent of her counterpart.

"How is Lana capable of smelling underwater?" Clyde inquired. "I mean, breathing is one thing, but smelling?"

"Clyde, if it helps us, don't question it," Carol stated.

They continued following the girl until they came across a giant, golden city of sorts stuck to the ground, which was where the scent lead them to.

As soon as they arrived, however, a giant monitor hovering above the middle of the city turned on, with Proto-Lana shown on the screen.

"Lincoln, Hayyel, Jophiel, Carol, and Clyde," Proto-Lana proclaimed, her voice echoing across the location as several lights turned on. "Welcome to my kingdom!"

Once all lights were turned on, the location suddenly got off the ground and started going up at an incredible speed as the prototype added:

"Welcome... To Atlantis!"

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Hi everybody, Carol here!"

Sam and Tabby talked before the latter snapped at the former, then ran to help with the hydra.

"We're currently stuck in Atlantis, where Lana's counterpart's planning to kill us."

At the Casagrande residence, Carlota and Bobby talked, with the former looking concerned at what the latter was saying.

"Also, the hydra's still attacking the beach, and it might be more than it seems."

Fish monsters entered Atlantis, forcing the team to fight back.

"Well, It's too late to back down. Time to-"

Proto-Lana talked about something.

"W-Wait, what's Proto-Lana talking about?!"

Carol looked horrified at what the prototype was saying.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Chandler and Ronnie Anne exchanged looks before Lynn interfered.

"The Beach Day Grows More Intense! Atlantis Rises Once More!"

Chandler cut open a hole that the Sadie Hawkins dates and Ronnie Anne entered through.

"Don't miss it!"

Back in Atlantis, Lana snapped back at Proto-Lana's claims, also revealing her pupils were paw-shaped.


	25. Rise of Atlantis

**Okay, chapter/episode 25. I think** ** **we're getting pretty close to the climax of this arc. Will it be a super long chapter like the previous arc? Well, I can try to make it that long and epic, but I can't make any promises.****

 ** **What I can promise you, however, is that a certain technique will be introduced pretty soon. One that may or may not open a door of possibility for the future.****

 ** **Also, I'm gonna have to take a break after next chapter, to try and get some more work done on this story.****

 ** **But for now, let's answer some reviews!:****

 ** ** **1) Hatoralo: Neither, this is an entirely different Atlantis.******

 ** ** **2) animehero1000:******

 ** ** *** As big as the hydra in Disney's Hercules.******

 ** ** *** She doesn't: They work for her.******

 ** ** *** Yeah, about that...******

 ** ** **3) Nobody245:******

 ** ** *** What is a good villain nowadays, anyway?******

 ** ** **4) Omega Ultra:******

 ** ** *** Being conplicated isn't always s good thing.******

 ** ** *** I try, hence why I'm going on hiatus after next chapter.******

 ** ** **5) Observant Guest:******

 ** ** *** I bet that enhanced the experience. Why not listen to... I don't know, some kind of epic battle music for the next part of the fight?"******

 ** ** *** Interesting, right?******

 ** ** *** Yeah, she got it from a certain someone...******

 ** ** *** I hope I can deliver, hehe.******

 ** ** **6) ChernoMan:******

 ** ** *** Oh, right...******

 ** ** *** So many questions, so little answers. I may need to dedicate a mini arc to Atlantis just to cover everything.******

 ** ** *** Thanks, I hope I can keep up this quality.******

 ** **And now, to the chapter!****

* * *

 ** **Episode 25: The Beach Day Grows More Intense! Atlantis Rises Once More!****

* * *

At a taco restaurant close to the beach, Sam and Tabby were sitting at one of the tables, eating a pair of tacos. Well, Sam was eating a taco, Tabby just looked at hers with disdain.

"Okay, these tacos still taste as good as they've always tasted," Sam stated before taking another bite of her taco. "That means Mr. Universe's masculinity hasn't affected our orientation yet."

"How would that even work?!" Tabby snapped, slamming her fists at the table. "How would they even be related!?"

"Isn't it obvious? A female of bisexual orientation is attracted to both guys and girls, but certain factors can have the scale go more towards one gender than the other," Sam explained, with Tabby rolling her eyes. "An extremely handsome, masculine look can make bisexuals go more towards men, and there's no better example than Mr. Universe himself!"

Tabby looked elsewhere. "I wish I had gone with Maggie instead."

"So do I."

The rocker's eyes widened and she turned back to see a forlorn Sam as she said:

"If I had gone with Maggie and not you, then you would be safe back home, and Maggie could've at least cheered me up somehow. But no, I wanted this to be Sam-Tabby bonding time, and now a giant sea monster's attacking, and I can't help because of that stupid Mr. Universe is there too!"

Sam slammed her fist down the table. "This is the worst day ever!"

Tabby frowned. "Sam..."

"I mean it! First, Luna ditches me for a hotter chick, then, a giant sea monster attacks out of nowhere, and as if that wasn't enough, Mr. Universe appears out of nowhere and forces us to cut and run so he doesn't turn us straight!" Sam groaned. "What's next? Is the Atlantis going to surface!?"

And that exactly happened, as the sunken city became sunken no more, with its arrival catching the eyes of everybody nearby, including the sisters.

"Do you know what that means?!" Tabby asked.

"Yes, I have obtained the power to predict the future!" Sam smiled deviously. "I will use this power for my most nefarious desires!"

"Why am I not surprised?" Tabby rolled her eyes. "But no, it means that things are going to get worse! I need to go back there!"

Tabby jumped off her chair and tried to run to the beach, only to be stopped by Sam grabbing her by her swimsuit.

"Tabby, I already told you," Sam tried pulling her sister back. "I can't let you go back, It's too dangerous!"

And then, Tabby generated an energy knife and sliced Sam's arm with it, leaving a small cut that made Sam wince and release her. "Our friends are in danger, even your supposed girlfriend, and yet you won't help them when they need it the most?!"

Sam took several deep breaths as she grabbed her injured arm, not even giving her sister an answer.

Tabby shifted her energy knife into a guitar and and scowled, "And you still wonder why I like Maggie more than a _coward_ like you!"

Sam flinched and watched as Tabby ran off to help the team, leaving Sam alone. However, shortly after, the girl took a look around until she spotted a music store, which made her narrow her eyes and smile as an idea popped in her head.

And of course, the news crew also caught a glimpse of the Atlantis...

 ** _The Casagrande Residence..._**

Carlota walked to the living room and sat on the couch, taking a long, deep breath without even noticing Bobby right next to her.

"Oh, hi Carlota," Bobby greeted. "What's up?"

"Well, I took over your turn, so: I cleaned the floors, organized the merchandise, put price tags on them, answered the customers' question of how much did something cost despite the blatant price tag, and half a dozen people, both male and female, tried to flirt with me," Carlota tiredly recapped, rubbing her forehead. "I swear, you must be superhuman to be able to deal with so much stuff at once!"

"Well, I don't have half a dozen people flirting with me," Bobby put a hand on Carlota's shoulder. "And besides, the bodega's a family business, I thought you'd have some kind of training to deal with it."

"I do, but I was expecting my first job to be at some fashion business, not a bodega," Carlota grabbed the control remote. "But, at least that's all said and done."

As soon as she turned on the tv, however, both Carlota and Bobby saw the current news report with shock:

"This is Catherine Sweetwater on the beach of Royal Woods once again," the news lady reporter before the camera focused on the Atlantis, and a bit on the hydra. "As a bunch of children bravely fight against the sea monster that rose not long ago, a giant city, presumed to be the long lost civilization of Atlantis, has resurfaced from the ocean."

"Wait, a giant monster's attacking? And Ronnie Anne didn't tell me about this?!" Bobby exclaimed, putting his hands on his cheeks in shock. "Why wouldn't she-"

As soon as he turned around, however, Bobby saw Carlota running back to her room, only to stop and turn around before shouting:

"Come on, Roberto, we need to go help Ronnie Anne!"

However, the guy sadly shook his head as he got up. "I'm sorry, Carlota. No matter how much I want to help, I got some business to deal with my team first."

The fashionista raised an eyebrow. "What?!"

"We're going on an investigation," Bobby explained as he headed to the door, walking past Carlota in the process. "One that's been postponed for long enough, and one that I want to uncover the truth of."

"What case are we talking about?" Carlota asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

Bobby sighed. "Well, to give you a hint, the victim's a lovechild."

Carlota flinched, and gaining a sympathetic look, she took a deep breath and stated:

"Good luck with the investigation."

With that said, Carlota went towards her room, and as soon as she was out of sight, Bobby heard the doorbell ring.

And once he opened it, he saw Ronnie Anne's city friends: Nikki, Casey, and Sameer, all wearing a red-white long-sleeved jacket with the symbol of a rooster in the chest.

Not only that, but Casey took an armband and a hat, and handed them to Bobby, who glanced at them before he glanced at the trio... And saw them saluting him.

"Alright, chief, we're ready to start the investigation," Nikki stated as Bobby stepped out of the house and closed the door. "Where do we go first?"

Bobby put the armband. "Where else would we go?"

Then the hat. "To the alleged murder scene."

Finally, he walked forward, and pointing right in front of him, he proclaimed:

"The Johnson Residence!"

"Um, Chief," Casey nervously pointed at his back. "I think you mean the one in Royal Woods, which is over _that_ direction."

Noticing his mistake, Bobby turned around and lead his team to the tunnels as he proclaimed:

"To Royal Woods!"

 ** _Back at the Beach..._**

As the fight continued, Lori and Leni sensed someone else coming, and saw none other than Chandler and Penelope approaching them, still riding a cloud.

"Well, look who we have here," Penelope stated with a slightly spiteful tone as the cloud leaned closer to Lori. "If it isn't my Clyde's former love interest."

Then Penelope got on the top of her feet and leaned even closer to an exasperated Lori. "Why are you just standing there, watching things happen, while Clyde is risking his life!?"

Lori slapped the redhead and pushed her back, growling, "Your boyfriend/husband/whatever isn't even here!"

Chandler raised an eyebrow. "Then, where is he?"

Leni pointed at the Atlantis in the distance, but while Penelope looked at the city, Chandler watched the fight and spotted Ronnie Anne among the people fighting the hydra. This made him whisper to the cloud:

"Guide Penelope to Atlantis!"

The redheaded guy jumped off his cloud and ran towards the sea monster while the cloud immediately flew onwards to the missing city, not giving Penelope any time to think of a plan.

As for the team, everybody pulled attacks at the beast to distract it while Johnson and DiMartino spun Mr. Universe around, gaining more and more speed as the beast tried to attack them, but found the rest of the kids too much of a pest to ignore.

"Keep going, guys!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed. "Just a couple seconds more!"

And then, Tabby ran past Ronnie and Lucy and leaped high, turning her energy guitar into a megaphone as everybody but the spinning trio stopped fighting and turned to look at her.

Realizing what the girl planned to do, everybody covered their ears before Tabby screamed through the megaphone, sending shockwaves and a massive double headache to the beast, stunning it in the process as her megaphone dissapeared into nothing and she fell right into Polly's arms.

"Universe! Now!" Polly shouted as she and the rest of the Sadie Hawkins girls moved away from the center of the monster.

The suited teachers threw Mr. Universe at the beast, the man's speed increasing as he covered his fist in crystal, just moments before he crashed and punched the monster hard enough to make it fall and hit the ground hard enough to cause a large splash of water.

"Alright!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed while Lucy clasped her hands in hopeful relief. "Critical hit!"

However, once everybody took a closer look at the spot that Universe hit, they saw that it wasn't punctured: It was deformed, yes, but not to a significant extent, let alone enough to create an opening.

Mr. Universe could only utter "What the?!" before the beast aimed It's eyes at the man and shot lasers from it, with Universe only being saved by Shrinivas flying and snatching him before the lasers fried him.

The lasers did fry the beast's skin, revealing metallic innards before it healed back to normal.

"That thing's insides are made of metal?!" Mr. Universe exclaimed with a shocked smile.

"It really isn't a normal hydra after all," Lucy said, clinging to Ronnie Anne for safety. "What do we do now?!"

Before the tomboy could answer, The beast opened it's mouth and looked at each other before charging a large lighting sphere, which they shot at Ronnie Anne and Lucy. Luckily, though, Ronnie Anne managed to grab it and hold it back for a moment with her arms.

"Run, Goth-O!" Ronnie Anne barked at the goth girl.

"But-"

"Run!"

Lucy ran to Lynn's side, leaving Ronnie Anne alone to keep the sphere at bay... Until someone appeared and helped her not only stop the sphere, but throw it back at the monster, successfully stunning them for the monster.

Ronnie immediately recognized who the certain someone was afterwards: Chandler, who threw a neutral look at her and a thumbs up.

Though Ronnie could only say one thing in response, one which she said with a furious tone:

"You!"

 ** _Meanwhile, in Atlantis..._**

The team scanned their surroundings in sheer disbelief, one so great their bubbles popped from it: They were on the mythical Atlantis, and it had resurfaced once more.

But most importantly, it was Proto-Lana's territory.

"It's beautiful, Isn't it? I honestly didn't think it would keep It's natural beauty after what Lincoln did to him," Proto-Lana stated as she herself looked at the city, then turned back to the team. "But hey, I guess I should give him _some_ credit: He left my stuff alone in the end."

"Come on, Lincoln, wake up!" Clyde told the unconscious white-haired boy. "If there's a time we need you the most, It's right now!"

"Quit trying to wake him up: I made sure to hit him hard enough so that he'll be out of commission for a while," Proto-Lana sternly stated. "And even if he _was_ conscious, he would be stuck in his mind, trying to get himself to agree to help."

"What are you talking about?!" Lana snapped, stomping the ground. "Stuck in his mind how?!"

"Oh, Hayyel, you don't have to keep acting as if you cared about him!" Proto-Lana proclaimed as the monitor extended out a megaphone. "Nobody has to!"

The shout was heard all the way to the shore, but everybody there were forced to listen, as they had their hands full with the hydra.

And thus, Proto-Lana proclaimed:

"The divine dictator Lincoln only has power as long as one person cares about him! Genuine or fake, any display of affection powers him! The only way to weaken him, to make him pay for what he's done, is to scorn him with every bit of hatred everything in this reality holds against him!"

The team narrowed their eyes and gritted their teeth as the prototype continued:

"So demean him, like he demeaned you! Insult him, like he insulted you! Treat him like a lesser being, in the exact same manner he trested you! Only then, can his corrupted mind be eliminated from taking a part in the inevitable Loudgeddon, that _he_ caused!"

Just then, a large rock was hurled at the giant monitor, but all it did was make a little scratch on the surface. And once she looked down, Proto-Lana saw that Lana herself had thrown the rock.

"So, you choose to ignore my message?" Proto-Lana scoffed. "What a Jophiel thing to do."

Lana growled, "Why, you!"

Proto-Lana smirked. "I guess I need to take out the big guns."

The prototype beastmistress let out a shrill roar, forcing the team to cover their ears as several aquatic animals jumped into the city border and soon morphed into grotesque humanoid forms.

And as soon as the roar ended, Lana snapped, "What did you do to them!?"

"I turned them into an army, one made specifically to make you suffer," Proto-Lana narrowed her eyes as the deformed fish monsters all looked at the team. "Now, you have two choices: Submit to the message and make Lincoln suffer, or fight the very animals you love so much."

Lana looked at the fish monsters as they slowly crawled towards her, the plumber holding back tears at the horrific transformation of the fish.

"Lana, don't let her get into your head!"

The plumber turned around and saw Lola standing by her side. "They're not the animals you love anymore!"

"She's right!"

Lana turned to her other side, and saw Carol. "Your counterpart turned them into monsters!"

Carol threw a reassuring look at the tomboy. "But, you can heal them back into the animals they used to be. I believe you can."

Lana turned back to Lola, who nodded in agreement, and with her confidence rising, Lana got surrounded by a navy blue aura similar to the one back in her fight with Proto-Lola, and raised her arms, lifting a bit of rubble as she prepared to attack.

 ** _Back at the Beach... Again..._**

The fight with the hydra continued as Ronnie Anne continued staring at Chandler, who kept shooting a stern glare at her.

"Chandler, why did you come here?" the tomboy asked, narrowing her eyes. "And why did you help me!? I thought I told you to never speak to me again!"

Chandler remained quiet, which soon got on Ronnie's nerves. "Say something!"

"You literally just told me to never speak to you again," Chandler saved his hands in his pockets. "So, do you want me to speak to you, or do you want me to never speak to you again? It's either one or the other, Ronalda."

Ronnie Anne flinched as the team briefly looked at the scene between the duo with shock before they continued fighting. The only exception was Lynn, who continued looking.

"He literally called her by her real name," Lori blurted in disbelief.

"D-Don't call me that!" Ronnie Anne snapped. "I may have been fine with it years ago, but hearing you say that makes my blood boil!"

"That should be _my_ line," Lynn growled, narrowing her eyes. "I'm the one with fire powers, after all!"

"Lynn, stop screwing around and help us with the monster!" Margo barked at the athlete. "The Ronalda girl can deal with the guy on her own!"

"Yeah, listen to Margo, Lynn!" Polly shouted. "We need to focus our attacks on the beast as much as possible!"

Lynn rolled her eyes and continued watching the scene unfold.

"If it makes you feel any better, I didn't come here for you," Chandler folded his arms. "I came here with Penelope to help Clyde."

"As if knowing you're not here to mess with me would make me feel better! Just the fact you're here ticks me off!" Ronnie Anne hissed, stomping the ground. "And besides, if you really came with Penelope, then where is she?!"

Chandler pointed at the Atlantis, with everybody turning to look at it afterwards. Yes, even the hydra.

"Huh, how didn't I see that earlier?" Ronnie Anne shook her head. "Anyway, we're doing fine on our own, so get the heck out of my face now!"

Lynn's eyes widened as she heard the tomboy say that, and she narrowed them as she jumped out of the beast and landed right in front of Ronnie Anne.

"Are you crazy, Ronnie Anne!?" Lynn snapped at the girl. "We're fighting a giant sea monster, and a guy is offering to help us, and you want him to go away!?"

Ronnie Anne narrowed her eyes. "Well, I-"

Lynn grabbed Ronnie Anne by her swimsuit and pulled her forward, her fire and Ronnie's electricity clashing with each other as she hissed:

"Listen, I hate to admit it, but we need as much help as we can! And I'm not going to let you blow that like the good-for-nothing bully you are!"

Chandler narrowed his eyes and walked towards the jock as Ronalda replied:

"You still consider me a bully!?"

"No, the other word I wanted to use for you is too mature for some of the people here!" Lynn clarified, gritting her teeth as her fire intensified. "But even if that wasn't the case, it wouldn't change the fact you've done nothing to change the fact you're nothing more than an abusive bully!"

"Why are you even bringing this up!?" Ronnie Anne snapped, her electricity intensifying as well. "Neither you nor any of your sisters had a problem with it when Lame-O told you about it years ago!"

"And that's precisely the issue! We had no problem with our brother being bullied because we thought it was your way of showing affection!" Lynn yelled, holding back tears as she continued. "But now that we know nothing is what we thought it was, it means our brother was being abused, and we did _nothing_ about it!"

Lynn threw Ronnie Anne at the ground, just in time for Luna to notice.

"Lynn, now's not the time to be an emotional jerk!" the rocker snapped at the jock. "We need to attack the beast!"

"Not until I give this brat a lesson!" Lynn pointed at Ronnie Anne. "Maybe then she'll actually try to change her attitude!"

Just then, Chandler reached Lynn, turned her so she was facing him, then kicked her straight in the stomach, sending her flying several feet away until she fell face-first in the sand.

With that done, Chandler helped Ronnie Anne get up as Lynn slowly stood up, clutching her stomach as Leni went to her aid.

"Lynn, are you, like, okay?!" Leni surrounded her hands in turquoise energy. "Here, let me fix you up."

Leni put her hands in Lynn's stomach, and as the jock was slowly healed, Chandler stated:

"Just because you have a lot of hatred for yourself, doesn't make it right for you to take it out on others!"

Lynn flinched, and Ronnie Anne asked, "What are you talking about?"

"Some people hold a lot of hate for themselves: For their actions, the consequences of said actions, it doesn't matter, they hate themselves," Chandler glared at Lynn. "And one way they try to cope with it is by projecting their faults on other people, regardless of how well they fit together."

Lynn looked at the ground upset, and Chandler asked Ronnie, "Anyway, what was up with the Mr. Universe stuff?"

"We had a plan to have him punch the beast to make a hole so some of us could enter and kill it from the inside," Ronnie Anne looked at the monster. "But the thing turned out to be much tougher than we thought."

Chandler faced the beast, and turned back to Ronnie and nodded before he leaped high into the air, charging his fists with electricity as he fell down. Once he landed on the monster's body, he morphed his energy to create energy swords, and cut open a hole with them.

"You got your hole, now get going!" Chandler shouted at Ronnie Anne. "I'll help everybody keep the monster occupied!"

Ronnie Anne nodded, and she, along with the Sadie Hawkins girls, jumped into the hole and went inside, with the hole slowly covering itself until Lynn suddenly jumped inside as well, upon which it closed completely.

And once inside, everybody noticed Lynn's presence pretty quickly.

"Why did you come here?!" Ronnie Anne snapped. "Don't you have to help deal with the beast on the outside?!"

"And leave one of my friends alone with you?! Not a chance!" Lynn stated, wrapping her arm around Polly's shoulder. "I'm here to both keep an eye on you and provide help with the beast's insides."

"Um, I'm not sure what you think," Haiku pointed at her surroundings. "But these don't look like entrails to me."

The team scanned the beast's interior, and found that rather than look like a disgusting mish mash of organs and arteries, the hydra's insides looked like a large, technologically advanced machine.

"This thing really is something else," Polly stated, with Lynn nodding in agreement.

"We've been dealing with a cyborg hydra all along!" Giggles exclaimed in shock. "By the way, what would you call one of those, cydra or hyborg?"

"I personally like hyborg," Haiku remarked.

"Whatever it is, we don't have time to waste," Tabby walked forward. "Come on, let's see what we can find."

The girls nodded and followed Tabby deeper inside the belly of the beast, though Lynn did eventually skip ahead until she was right next to Tabby, leading the group as well.

 ** _At the Skies..._**

Paige continued to pilot her mecha as it flew closer to the beach. And once it was close enough, the hydra's signal appeared on the radar.

"Alright girls, we're fairly close," Paige stated. "Just a couple more meters and-"

Just then, another couple signals appeared on the radar, with one being spade-shaped.

"Huh, that's strange," Paige remarked. "I'm picking up Lincoln's signal, but he doesn't appear to be conscious."

"He's not conscious? That might means Sweet Feet's in danger!" Ronnie exclaimed. "We have to go help him!"

Paige frowned. "But the hydra-"

The pilot turned to the biker trio, and all they had to do was throw a triple puppy-dog eyed look at Paige to change her mind:

"Alright, in that case, hang on tight: We're going to Atlantis!"

Speaking of the Atlantis, the battle between the team and the fish creatures continued, with Proto-Lana watching the fight unfold with a smug look.

First, Lana lifted some rocks and lunged them at some of the fish things, destroying the upper half of their bodies. Then, once the rock split into pieces, Lola grabbed whatever crystalline matter she could find inside and threw it at the things, which screamed as their bodies were easily pierced.

Clyde held Lincoln in his hands, jumping away at any attack from the fish and allowing Carol to get closer and cut the beasts with her lighting swords.

And yet, the fish things just kept coming.

"It hurts, doesn't it, Hayyel? The animals who would've been your allies are now your enemies instead," Proto-Lana hissed. "This is the fate of everything if Lincoln is allowed to live! He will transfer his pariah status to each and everyone of you! Everything and everybody you once loved will loath your very existence!"

Lana threw another rock at the monitor, which, again, did little to no damage. But then, before Proto-Lana could even say anything, a missile was launched at the screen, causing it to crack even more as the launcher arrived:

It was Paige's mecha, with the cockpit opening to reveal the biker trio waving hello and Paige looking proud at her actions.

"Heh, that felt good," Paige stated.

"Hi everybody!" the trio chirped. "Is Sweet Feet here?!"

Clyde immediately ran to the mecha and presented the unconscious boy to the girls. "He's been unconscious since he fought the rip-off Lana!"

"Mindy, Cindy, Ronnie, help Clyde put Lincoln on the healing pod," Paige ordered as she jumped out of the mecha. "And you, Clyde, pilot this thing in the meantime."

Clyde raised an eyebrow. "How do you know my name?"

Paige took out a large hammer and smiled, "I know a lot of things."

Annoyed by the interruption, Proto-Lana looked around the battlefield, and spotted Carol and Lana fighting the fish beasts back-to-back.

"You and Carol seem to share something of a bond, Hayyel," Proto-Lana remarked with a devious smile. "I wonder how strong that bond is."

Lana separated from Carol and narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about now?"

Proto-Lana threw a look at Carol, who flinched as she nearly figured where this was going.

"Hayyel, everybody has a dark secret, some worse than others," the prototype narrowed her eyes. "And Carol just so happens to hold one such secret."

The screen changed, this time showing Carol, with purple, glowing eyes, slashing down lovechildren.

"Before her current state, she worked as the "Love Slayer," a person given the job to kill any lovechild that Lincoln didn't approve of. Which, of course, basically meant any lovechild that wasn't his own."

More images, showing the same scenario but with different lovechildren, played as Carol shivered.

"You believed all along that the hybrid was your ally," Proto-Lana stated as the screen turned back to reveal her face. "But she's no friend of yours."

Carol took a step back and looked at her hands as Proto-Lana scoffed:

"Her hands may not show it, but they're covered in the blood of countless, helpless lovechildren all across existence."

A brief flash happened, and Carol found herself in the middle of some kind of battlefield, littered with the corpses of dozens of lovechildren, though that was all she could see before she returned back to reality.

"Are you serious?"

Carol and Proto-Lana flinched, and the former turned around to see Lana walking past her, while staring sternly at her counterpart in the monitor.

"You really think that, just because you show me a couple of creepy pictures of Carol, that it'll be enough for me to believe you?" Lana gritted her teeth. "That it'll be enough for _anybody_ to believe you!?"

"Hayyel, the proof is irrefutable," Proto-Lana stated. "She murdered lovechildren, both born from you and Lincoln, and from the union of Lincoln and his other "sisters." Certainly, as someone who values family above all else, you would see no reason to trust Carol anymore."

"Oh please, as if _you_ valued family to any extent: You and the other progenitors attacked us the first time we met!" Lana hissed. "And you summoned a giant sea monster, and swarmed Atlantis with fishy things to attack my siblings _and_ my friends!"

Lana turned towards Lola. "You were even willing to hurt people who had nothing to do with this!"

Lana turned back to the screen. "And besides, even if Carol did any of those things, I can't take anything at face value anymore! None of us can!"

The siblings, their allies, and even the hydra nodded in agreement as the tomboy plumber continued:

"We lived in a world that was so much more than we thought, and we never realized it! Everything we've found out, everything we've been learning about our world, it's all changed!"

Lana took a step forward. "And it all started when you and the other progenitors showed up and kicked our butts! So if you can think you can trick me, or any of us, with bare-bones information, then you have no idea how wrong you are!"

"Yeah, give her a piece of your mind!" Paige exclaimed while the biker trio cheered for the tomboy. "Expose her nonsense!"

Proto-Lana rolled her eyes at Paige and sternly asked, "So, you will choose to believe your own delusions rather than face reality?"

"I'm saying, that if there's any reason I can think of for why Carol would do those things, is because _you_ forced her to do it!" Lana proclaimed, her pupils turning paw-shaped as she finished:

"After all, what reason do I have to trust you!?"

Proto-Lana narrowed her eyes slowly, gaining an aura surrounding her as she growled:

"It has become clear to me that you can't be reasoned with. Therefore..."

The monitor turned off, and the palace in the background suddenly burst with energy, as a beaming light flew from there to the monitor, destroying it completely once it crashed.

The light turned out to be none other than Proto-Lana, alongside Claire and Watterson, but looking really pisses off.

"If you won't listen to reason, you will listen to force!"

Claire touched her little companion, and transformed him into a large wolf-like beast, before she got up on his back and fought Carol, Lola, Paige, and the mecha with him.

This left Lana alone with Proto-Lana, who dashed straight for the girl as she was enveloped in a navy blue light. She extended a hand as Proto-Lana threw a punch...

And she blocked it, without even flinching, as her form changed a little.

Shortly afterwards, Lana's light dissipated, revealing her hair had grown much longer, reaching past her back and forming a mane, and her clothing sported a spade-shaped symbol on the chest.

Not only that, but from her back, a pair of paw-shaped wings sprouted. And finally, her sclera became navy blue, and her pupils were shaped like paws.

Something was clear in that moment: Lana had achieved her angel form.

"B-But, how?!" Proto-Lana exclaimed, trying to free her clutched punch. "How could you access your angelic form already!?"

Lana turned to Carol and winked. "I got help from a friend."

Carol smiled in relief, and Lana promptly released Proto-Lana only to launch a right hook right at her face, one strong enough to send her flying back into the castle, demolishing it in the process.

Lana looked at her arm and scratched her chin. "Huh, not bad. I guess I could get used to this kind of power."

The tower exploded as Proto-Lana flew out of it and landed at the spot of the monitor, trashing it as she proclaimed:

"A mere power up won't be enough to defeat me, you hear!?"

The prototype powered up even more, gaining bat-like wings and a scorpion-like tail in the process.

"I'm Barbatos, king of the Lana caste! And I won't allow my kingdom to be ruled by an unworthy heir like you!"

Proto-Lana rushed straight for Lana, who rolled her eyes as she said:

"We'll see who's the unworthy heir soon."

Lana dashed straight for Proto-Lana, and the pair got ready to throw a punch, beginning the fight for the rulership of Lana's caste.

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Hi everybody, Lana here!"

Lana and Proto-Lana fought in the skies, then on the throne room, as the plumber spoke:

"I've managed to achieve my angel form, and I'm fighting my counterpart."

Meanwhile, at the belly of the beast, Lynn and Tabby have an argument, only for Ronnie Anne to break them apart.

"However, while the fight seems even, I can't help but feel we're stuck in a stalemate."

Back in Atlantis, the fight with the fish monsters continue: Paige used her hammer, Clyde piloted the mecha, Penelope arrived to provide backup, and so on.

"Well, at least Lola and the others are safe..."

Speaking of Lola, she ran, or better yet flew away, towards the tower, leaving a trail of pink light.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Lana grabbed Skippy and maneuvered around her counterpart's attacks as she and the boy talked.

"Into the Belly of the Beast! The Fight Between the Beast Monarchs Begins!"

Skippy frowned, and Lana did the same before Proto-Lana's attack hit them.

"Don't miss it!"

Finally, Lincoln woke up in some mysterious location, where he saw someone else nearby:

Sincoln.


	26. King of the Jungle

**Well, last chapter was crazy, wasn't it? Let's hope we dial back the craziness for this one, otherwise... Well, this might get overwhelming.**

 **Also, remember when I said I was gonna go on hiatus after this chapter? Change of plans: I finish this arc, then go on hiatus. Sounds good? Great.**

 **But first, let's answer some reviews:**

 ** **1) Hatoralo: No kidding, Sherlock.****

 ** **2) Nobody245: I'll keep that in mind, but I want you to keep this in mind as well; The Proto-Sisters represent the sister's darkest flaws given form.****

 ** **3) ChernoMan: If there wasn't comedy relief in the world, the shocking moments would soon lose their spark as there would be no comedy to clash with them. Or in other words: I felt it was necessary. But don't worry, Proto-Lucy's arc won't have many funny moments.****

 ** *** We will see Chandler again, don't worry.****

 ** **4) animehero1000:****

 ** *** It really didn't, did it?****

 ** *** Lincoln, of course.****

 ** *** Hehehe, I'll fix that soon.****

 ** **5) Observant Guest:****

 ** *** Yeah, and it won't be the last time we see the team, Penelope's vitriol, or Sam getting chewed out.****

 ** *** That's what happens when you mix castes.****

 ** *** How was Chandler written, then? And yeah, Lynn needed a good scolding.****

 ** *** Yeah, Proto-Lana might like Hannibal, but she sure as heck is pathetic when trying to imitate him.****

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 26: Into the Belly of the Beast! The Fight Between the Beast Monarchs Begins!**

* * *

Back where we left off, Lana and Proto-Lana were clashing in the skies, while the rest of the team fought Claire and Watterson on the ground.

Soon enough, the pair of plumbers clashed hard enough to send each other flying back a little, with Proto-Lana seemingly the only one injured in the process.

"Something the matter, Fake Me?" Lana scoffed, folding her arms. "You ready to accept you're just a knock off or what?"

Proto-Lana's aura intensified as she flew towards Lana and punched her, which, despite the angelic plumber blocking the attack, still made her flinch.

" _It hurt?! But I blocked it!_ " Lana thought in disbelief. " _Could it be..._ "

The angelic plumber glanced back at her counterpart, who bared her fangs and got ready to throw another punch as the girl came to a disturbing conclusion:

" _She's getting stronger?!_ "

A couple seconds later, Lana got her answer: Despite blocking the punch again, the angel was sent plummeting across several buildings before crashing on the ground, leaving a huge crater in the process.

Lana slowly got up and scratched her head as she tried to process what made her counterpart grow stronger... Something she didn't have much time, since said counterpart nearly crashed right at her spot, with the angelic plumber narrowly avoiding the crash.

And as soon as she managed to get up and dust herself, the angelic plumber clashed again with her counterpart, throwing a perplexed look at the prototype before they took their fight to the skies again.

 ** _Belly of the Beast..._**

Lynn and Tabby lead Ronnie Anne, Polly Pain, Haiku, and Giggles deeper inside the mechanical-organic insides of the hydra, which looked more and more mechanical the deeper they went.

"You know, I heard about stuff being bigger on the inside, but this is ridiculous," Lynn complained as she placed her arms behind her head. "Are we even going the right direction?"

"Do you even know where we're going?" Tabby sternly asked the jock.

"We're going deeper inside the monster, of course," Lynn stated with a shrug. "And like Ronnie Anne said, the only way to kill this thing is probably from the inside."

"Uh huh, and with that in mind, why are you here?" the tiny rocker asked with a hint of hostility. "You could've stayed behind with the others taking on the monster."

"And leave you at the mercy of Ronnie Anne's bullying? I don't know you, but nobody deserves that!" Lynn answered, putting her hands on her hips as Polly glared at her with disapproval. "And besides, attacking that thing on the outside was leading nowhere, me helping hammer away on the inside should speed things up a little."

Tabby stopped Lynn on her tracks, causing the rest of the team to stop as well.

"You seem to have misinterpreted my question," the rocker growled. "By "Why are you here," I didn't mean "Why did you abandon everybody else and joined us," I meant "What sort of difference would it make?"

Lynn narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't like where this is going," Haiku worriedly said. "Giggles, get the shield ready."

The clown girl searched her bag as Tabby responded to Lynn:

"Polly can control fire and do most of the things you can do on your own. She's part of your caste, after all. Honestly, I get the feeling you just joined because you wanted to "share" the glory of dealing the killing blow to the monster."

"That's total bs!" Lynn snapped, stomping the ground and clenching her fist. "I came along to make sure nothing bad happened to you and your friends, that's all!"

"Hmph, Polly was right about you," Tabby folded her arms and shook her head. "You'd even lie to make sure your the VIP of a fight."

Lynn shot a glare at Polly, who flinched and backed away as Ronnie Anne got in-between the duo and separated them.

"Hey, hey! Listen, who cares if Jock-O has ulterior motives for coming here?" the tomboy said, getting both Lynn and Tabby's attention. "As long as she pulls her own weight and helps us kill the beast, does it really matter?"

Tabby looked at Ronnie Anne straight in the eyes, and seeing the supposed "bully" legitimately didn't want a fight to break out, she took a deep breath and nodded in agreement, before continuing to walk deeper into the belly of the beast.

Haiku and Giggles sighed in relief and followed Tabby while Lynn was left with Ronnie Anne and Polly Pain.

"Why'd you stick up for me?" Lynn asked, flabbergasted at Ronnie's action. "You could've kept quiet and let things play out on their own?"

"Because I didn't want a fight to happen, especially not right here," Ronnie Anne scanned her surroundings. "I mean, who knows how dangerous this place is compared to the outside!"

Lynn blinked twice, processing what the tomboy said as she added, "Well, let's keep going, Rock-O and the others won't wait for us."

Ronnie Anne ran after the rest of the team as Lynn finally blurted something:

"She tried to stop a fight, rather than let it happen?"

"Yeah, the "bully" didn't want a fight to break out after all," Polly Pain walked past Lynn. "Imagine that."

Now alone, Lynn looked at the ground in contemplation, then looked back at the team and followed them, right at the very end.

 ** _Back on Atlantis..._**

The team continued fighting Claire, who held on to Watterson's mane as the giant beast attacked whoever was closest to him. He first tried to swing his claws at Lola, only for the girl to leap back and aim her arm at the beast as she exclaimed:

"Diamond Blast!"

A pink energy blast came out of Lola's palm, sending her flying back as Watterson and Claire took the blast head-on. The blast exploded into a pink smoke cloud while Lola stood up and looked at her palm.

"I honestly didn't think that was going to work," the pageant princess remarked as she clenched her fist. "Feels like I just need to use my imagination to use new powers."

"That won't be enough!"

Lola looked at the cloud, where she saw Claire leaping out high into the sky, with the girl getting ready to throw a downward kick as she fell towards the one-armed diva, who was paralyzed in shock.

Before long, however, Carol opened a portal, took Lola through it, and closed said portal before the beastmaster slammed her kick into the ground, leaving a large crater behind.

After that, Watterson walked out of the dissipating smoke cloud, not looking any worse for wear, as Claire got back up and looked around for any signs of the princess' new location.

"Why would you just stand there?!"

Claire and Watterson turned to the source of the shouting, which was from Carol snapping at the pageant princess.

"I-I thought they were gonna be down longer than that!" Lola argued. "I mean, they got hit point blank, they should've at least been knocked back a little!"

"That's not an excuse to give her a free shot!" Carol scowled, putting her hands on her hips. "Listen, we did the training for a reason: To get you prepared to fight against the progenitors! If you can't even deal with a champion, how do you expect do that!?"

Lola looked at the ground, and got an idea. "With Lana!"

Carol raised an eyebrow, but before she could process what the girl said, Watterson tackled her and smacked her away, with some fish monsters surrounding and attacking Lola soon afterwards.

Meanwhile, on another side of the fight, Clyde clumsily made the mecha move closer to some enemies, before drilling through their bodies and spinning the mecha's torso around, sending the monsters flying at Paige, who crushed their bodies with her hammer.

"Clyde, what the heck are you doing!?" Paige snapped at the guy. "Haven't you piloted a mecha before?!"

"No! It's the first time I've ever piloted something like this, give me a break!" Clyde shouted in return. "If only there was a manual in this thing..."

Paige smacked a lunging fish monster away as she exclaimed:

"Ronnie, Mindy, Cindy, see if you can do something to wake Lincoln up!"

"How?!" the girls exclaimed.

"Plead! Beg! Ask nicely, anything will do!" Paige answered. "But you need to let Lincoln know that you need him right now!"

Clyde immediately smacked a fish monster away as he replied, "Even if they can do that, the monsters are attacking us way too fast!"

And then Claire and Watterson tried clawing at the mecha, prompting Clyde to lock glares with them. "And there's these two as well!"

Just then, Penelope arrived along with the cloud, which she used to rain ice from it on top of the monsters, all just by placing her hands on the cloud and activating her powers. She then jumped off the cloud, kicked Watterson in the face, and stood right in front of the robot.

"Penelope?!" Clyde exclaimed in sheer disbelief. "What are you doing here?!"

"I'm here to protect you, of course!" the Queen of Bullies stated, before nonchalantly aiming her palm at the girl-dog duo and shooting a small crystal at them. "As soon as Chandler and I saw the news about the monster, there was no way we weren't coming to help you!"

"Chandler's here too?!" Clyde asked.

"Yeah, but he's helping everybody else deal with the monster: He sent me here to help you," Penelope looked at her surroundings. "So, how much did we miss?"

Paige rolled her eyes as Clyde sighed, "What didn't you miss?"

Claire stood up and dusted herself as Watterson went to her side and everybody else noticed.

"Fine, you want to bring more people into this fight?!" Claire growled. "We can play that game too!"

Watterson howled at the sky loud enough for it to be heard across the ancient city. The fish monsters fighting Lola heard the howl, and immediately surrounded the team, with Lola barely being able to process what happened before she found the girl and giant dog duo landing right in front of her.

"And while your friends dance with the fishes," Claire stated as Watterson raised his claw. "We'll take care of you!"

Fortunately, Lola managed to generate a diamond-shaped energy shield, allowing her to block the incoming attack. However, wih only one arm to maintain it, the girl and beast pair quickly started gaining the upper hand.

And noticing this, Lola looked at her surroundings for a place to flee... Only to see Lana and Proto-Lana crashing into the large building the prototype originally came from.

Upon seeing that, Lola narrowed her eyes, which glew pink, and next thing Watterson and Claire knew, the pageant princess burst the shield and flew towards the building as fast as she could, leaving a pink trail behind her.

 ** _The Throne Room..._**

A wall burst to pieces as Lana and Proto-Lana crashed through it, with the former kicking the latter hard enough to send her flying into a pillar, splitting it in half and making the top half fall on top of the progenitor.

With that done, Lana flew to the ground and caught her breath, where she looked at her surroundings for a hiding spot... Allowing her to find Skippy as well.

So she ran to the spot and hid there, while Proto-Lana pushed the pillar off herself and caught a glimpse of Lana fleeing.

"Skippy!" Lana snapped at the boy. "Why are you still here?! I'm fighting my faker here, you have to get out before you get hurt!"

Proto-Lana suddenly lifted the rock hiding the pair and tried squashing them with it, prompting Lana to grab Skippy and fly away from the strike.

"And where am I supposed to go?!" Skippy asked in a panic. "Atlantis is in the middle of the ocean! Even if I could swim, I would before I made it to the shore!?"

"The shore isn't that far away, but I see your point," Lana sighed. "Still, this is too dangerous, you can't stay here!"

Proto-Lana lifted some boulders and rubble with her terrakinesis and threw it at the girl, who flew around to dodge them as she kept talking with Skippy, who replied:

"Why do you even care about what happens to me?!"

"Because this is _my_ problem, and I'm not going to let innocent people get involved in it!" Lana proclaimed. "Not my sisters, not my friends, and certainly not you!"

Skippy frowned. "Innocent?"

Lana stopped flying and turned to Skippy, who sorrowfully asked:

"What do you mean... Innocent?"

"What kind of dumb question is that!?" Lana rubbed her temples. "You're not doing the things you're doing because you want to, right?!"

The boy looked down as the angelic plumber added: "My counterpart's forcing you to do them!"

"But... Even so..." Skippy looked elsewhere. "What about that time I...called you Lola?"

The angelic tomboy frowned. "Skippy-"

Suddenly, a boulder thrown by Proto-Lana hit the transformed beastmaster, and though she wasn't that hurt by it, not only did it send her flying and crashing into a wall, but she dropped Skippy, who screamed as he plummeted to his supposed demise...

But then, a familiar flash of pink light dashed towards the boy, caught him, and gently put him on the ground as she revealed her true form:

It was Lola, in her Jophiel form.

"There, you're safe now," Lola remarked, patting the kid's back. "Now, be sure to get out as soon as you've recovered, alright?"

Skippy nodded silently, too dumbfounded to really say anything.

Lola then turned to her angelic twin and shouted, "It's okay, Lana! Your boyfriend's safe!"

Lana blushed as she exclaimed, "What?!"

And then, Proto-Lana smacked her tail against the ground, sending a shockwave at the angelic princess, which she deflected with a diamond shield she sprouted from the ground.

With that done, Lola's shield dissipated, revealing a confident smile from the angel.

"So, Lola's daughter decides to meddle with matters that don't concern her," Proto-Lana scoffed, chuckling as she added, "Like Mother, Like Daughter, I guess."

"Laugh all you want, copycat!" Lola boasted. "As long as Lana and I work together, nobody can defeat us!"

At that statement, Lana dropped from the wall and crashed face-first next to Lola, who didn't even seem to notice.

"Really?" Proto-Lana narrowed her eyes. "In that case..."

Proto-Lana bared her claws and lunged at the pair.

"I'll just have to kill you both!"

 ** _Meanwhile, with Lincoln..._**

The boy slowly opened his eyes as the voices of the Biker Trio echoed in the void, shouting:

" _Sweet Feet, get up!_ "

" _Please don't leave us!_ "

" _We need you!_ "

As the girls continued shouting things in desperate pleading, Lincoln fully opened his eyes, allowing him to see where he was.

It was a dark, seemingly abandoned laboratory of sorts, one that reminded him of Ace Savvy's lair from his comics. And from the looks of it, the boy was completely alone...

Well, except for an identical clone of him nearby, who was trying to access some kind of machine.

"Come on, you stupid heap of junk!" the Lincoln lookalike snapped. "Stop defying me, and do as I say! Let me use you!"

The lookalike punched the machine... And it didn't do anything to it, angering the clone as Lincoln got up and walked up to him.

"Uh, h-hey..." Lincoln nervously greeted. "W-Who are you? Where are we?"

The clone turned to Lincoln, revealing a furious scowl showcasing the clone's orange sclera and spade-shaped pupils.

"Oh, junior, about time you woke up," the clone stated sternly. "Make yourself useful and help me connect myself to this machine."

Lincoln rubbed his temples. "I can't help you if I don't know what's going on!"

"Ugh, and here I was hoping you weren't a bitch like the others," the other Lincoln leaned against the machine. "Okay, to recap: You're you, I'm Lincoln, the original, most perfect Lincoln in the universe mind you, and we're currently knocked out. We're currently in our mindscape, where we're stuck here while everybody's getting their asses kicked outside."

"Wait... _O_ _ _ur__ mindscape?" Lincoln asked, earning a nod from the clone. "We share the same mind."

"Yup: I'm the only sane man that needs to keep everything in place, and you're the obnoxious son that drives me nuts every day," Not-Lincoln wrapped his arm around Lincoln's shoulder. "Together, we control the universe, one dimension at a time!"

The boy was left flabbergasted. "What?"

"That was the original pitch I gave to the Greater Ones when I restarted the universe," Not-Lincoln rolled his eyes. "But they wouldn't let me do my thing until I shoved the rest of my "sisters" into the plot somehow."

Lincoln pushed the clone away as he realized something:

"You... You're Sincoln?"

"No, I'm Lincoln," Sincoln replied, striking a pose before boasting, "The most powerful, most desirable being in all of the Loudverse!"

Lincoln shook his head at the statement. "Whatever. So anyway, you say this is our mind?"

"Yeah, pretty neat, huh?" Sincoln scanned his surroundings. "It's based on Ace Savvy's base."

Sincoln then shook his head and frowned. "But whatever! That doesn't matter now! Help me gain control of this body!"

Lincoln scratched his chin. "Okay, let me get this: That machine you're trying to connect to, would allow you to control the body?"

"Yes, but only in the mind, the powers must be connected from another machine," Sincoln pointed at the mentioned machine, which stood right next to the other machine. "I can connect to that one just fine, but connecting myself to both is proving to be a problem."

Then, Lincoln got an idea... And frowned with concern.

"What's with that look?" Sincoln asked.

"Listen, this might sound crazy, but... If you can connect to the power machine, and I, let's assume, can connect to the mind machine," Lincoln folded his arms. "Maybe, if we connect to our respective machines and try to work together, we could regain consciousness, and help everybody!"

Sincoln dropped the cable, and walked towards Lincoln, sporting a neutral look until he was face-to-face with the boy. Once that was done, Sincoln smiled...

And knocked Lincoln out with a single punch.

 ** _Back in Reality..._**

Penelope crystallized a monstrous fish and threw it at the mecha, allowing Clyde to punch the crystallized fish beast to pieces, while Paige protected the machine by smacking any incoming monsters.

"Has Lincoln recovered yet?!" Paige asked sternly.

"The biker toddlers are doing everything they can, but he hasn't responded!" Clyde exclaimed from within the mecha. "Are you sure them telling him to get better will wake him up?!"

"It's the only thing I could think of!" Paige crushed a monster's head with her hammer. "You got any better ideas?"

"Yes: Leave him alone."

The mecha and Paige turned to Penelope, who was staring at them sternly while she impaled a fish monster with a long, sharp pink crystal coming from the back of her hand.

"Clyde, I understand that you and Lincoln are best friends," the redheaded girl sheathed the crystal and turned her fingernails into pink, crystal claws. "As much as I hate the idea, I'm willing to stomach it for you."

The girl allowed some monsters to run to her, then clawed through them like paper, before asking:

"But considering how he's unconscious when he is needed the most, do you really think you can trust him to wake up on his own?"

Silence filled the arena as the monsters stood still to watch the scene, with Claire and Watterson looking confused at this reaction.

"What do you know about Lincoln?"

That question came from Clyde, which made Penelope raise an eyebrow as she answered, "Well, I-"

Then Clyde interjected. "What makes you _think_ you can judge him?"

Penelope took a step back, shocked at the response, and of what Clyde said next:

"Lincoln has his flaws, I'll admit that. But if someone's going to judge him, it should be someone who knows him. Someone who's been with him since childhood, in both good and the bad times."

Clyde made the mecha point at itself as he stated:

"And that someone is me."

Then he made it point at Penelope as he stated:

"And I'm not going to let an ignorant jerk like you doubt him!"

Paige smiled with pride, while Penelope frowned, looked elsewhere and scratched the back of her head, looking legitimately impacted by the statement...

 ** _Back Inside the Belly of the Beast..._**

The team stopped as they reached a door with both a paw and a square symbol on it, with a control panel next to it.

"This must be where the hydra's heart is," Tabby stated. "Now, we need to find a way to get inside, destroy it, then get out as fast as we can. I got a feeling Sam is gonna do something crazy, and if it's what I think it is, we shouldn't be here when it happens!"

Ronnie Anne and Lynn walked towards the control panel as Polly said, "That's probably where we need to input a password to open the door."

Lynn looked at her palm, then briefly created a fireball that dissipated in seconds before she got an idea:

"Or, we could make it malfunction!"

Lynn slammed her hand against the panel and started transmitting heat towards it. However, while the panel started overheating, the door wasn't budging.

"Lynn, It's not working!" Polly pointed out.

"Tell me something I don't know!" Lynn snapped as she started applying more heat. "I don't get it, this should be enough!"

Ronnie Anne looked at her palm, got an idea, then put her hand on the same panel and unloaded electricity on it, causing it to short-circuit soon after. This made the door open automatically...

And also set off some alarms.

"Right, alarms, I forgot every security system ever has those," Tabby remarked. "Come on, we gotta move before something happens!"

"Like what?" Haiku asked.

From the walls sprouted mechanical lifeforms, looking like odd mixes between bulls and fish.

"Like them!" Polly exclaimed, pointing at the things.

Polly grabbed Tabby's hand and the Sadie Hawkins girls ran into the room, leaving Ronnie Anne and Lynn to follow them.

But while Ronnie Anne bolted to the room, Lynn stood in place.

"Hey, Jock-O, what are you waiting for?!" Ronnie Anne yelled, stopping on her tracks.

Lynn scratched her chin. "Nothing, but... I feel like my sisters need me."

"They're outside with a bunch of other people attacking the hydra!" Ronnie Anne pointed out. "I'm sure they're fine!"

Lynn narrowed her eyes. "Those aren't the sisters I'm talking about."

The jock then took a couple steps forward, then shot a fireball on the ground between her and Ronnie Anne, which soon expanded and turned into a wall of fire, blocking the entrance to the robots.

And when one of those things tried to cross anyway, it could only stand for a couple seconds before it melted away into a pile of metal goo.

"Yup, that should be good enough," Lynn stated. "Now to help my sisters!"

The jock jumped up and crashed through the ceiling as Ronnie Anne joined the rest of the girls, who were looking at something in pure shock.

"So, get this, Jock-O created a literal wall of fire and just up and left!" Ronnie Anne told the girls, oblivious of their shock. "Can you believe her?!"

When they didn't respond, the tomboy grew worried. "Girls?"

Polly grabbed Ronnie Anne's head and made her look at the sight in front of them: A giant, organic heart with several tubes connected to it, pumping blood to the rest of the beast's body.

And Liam and Hattie were inside said heart, curled up in fetal positions.

"Yeah, that's messed up," Giggles commented.

 _ **Back at the Throne Room...**_

The twins flew up and separated as Proto-Lana lifted several large rocks and threw them at them, with her attention slowly growing towards Lana until she exclusively threw rocks at her, paying no attention to Lola.

Now being her chance, Lola created a bomb-shaped crystal.

"Diamond Bomb Grenade!"

Lola threw the bomb-like gem at the prototype, with the gem blowing up as soon as it hit her. And as the pink smoke cloud rose, Lola smiled and blinked once, hoping it had done something.

Then Proto-Lana leaped out of the explosion straight to Lola, only for Lana to lift and throw a boulder at her with her terrakinesis. And though the boulder hit the prototype hard enough to send her flying backwards, she simply kicked it away and planted her claws on the ground, quickly regaining her footing.

With that, the twins saw that Proto-Lana was mostly unharmed, besides a burnt scar on the spot the bomb hit her.

"Lola, we've been through this before!" Lana snapped at her sister. "This is my problem! Stay out of it!"

Lana stomped the ground, sending a row of stalactites towards Proto-Lana as she grabbed Lola's arm and flew away, with the prototype chasing after them soon after, leaving Skippy alone to rest from the hectic fight.

As they flew, Proto-Lana climbed a tower and jumped from building to building as she tried attacking the twins in the meantime, with the duo also getting a glimpse of the ground fight from the skies.

Not that they saw it for long, since Proto-Lana struck them both down, sending them plummeting to the ground.

And as soon as they crashed, Proto-Lana got on top of Lola, while also making sure to trap Lana's feet on the ground.

"Lola!" Lana exclaimed.

"You know, Jophiel, my sisters and I agreed on something," Proto-Lana said. "Each of us will kill our respective descendants, and leave the other descendants alone. But you know what?"

Proto-Lana raised a giant boulder with terrakinesis and growled:

"I've changed my mind about that!"

Just as she threw the boulder, however, the big rock was incinerated into dust, with the prototype barely noticing this before Lynn came out of nowhere and kicked her hard enough to send her flying away, releasing Lana in the process.

"Lynn!" Lana hugged the fiery jock. "I didn't think you'd come, but I'm glad you did!"

"That being said, _why_ are you here?" Lola asked, scratching her head as she got up. "Weren't you helping everybody else fight the hydra?"

"I was, but then I realized, I wasn't really needed there," Lynn answered as she brushed Lana's hair. "With the dozen or so people over there, I'm sure they can beat that thing on their own."

Lynn and Lana separated as the jock added, "And seeing how you were dealing with one of the progenitors, I figured my help was much more needed here."

The twins smiled in relief, though they barely had time to enjoy the moment before Proto-Lana sprouted from the ground and tried swiping at them, only for Lynn to block the attack.

"I'll keep her occupied!" Lynn exclaimed. "You come up with a plan to beat her!"

Lynn pushed the prototype elsewhere, allowing the twins to talk.

Well, they would've both talked, if Lana didn't angrily interject:

"First training, and now this! What do I have to do for you to understand!? This is _my_ problem! And I need to fix it _alone_!"

Lola pinched the bridge of her nose. "This again!? Why do you keep saying that!"

"Because it's true and you need to accept it!" Lana hissed. "Now go help everybody else, while I deal with my counterpart!"

Lana tried to go after her counterpart, but was stopped by Lola, who grabbed her by her hair and firmly grasped it.

"Lola, let me go!" Lana barked.

"Not until you tell me what's wrong with you!" Lola snapped back. "Ever since the beauty pageant, you've been trying to push away for no reason!"

Lana turned to Lola as the diva added:

"We've always been there for each other whenever we had problems! And when we tackled them, we did it together! And that is the only way we are gonna win this!"

Lana slapped Lola's hand away and yelled at the top of her lungs:

"If we beat her together, that'll only prove I'm _nothing_ compared to you!"

The princess backed away in shock, as Lana frowned and shed a tear as she added:

"That I'm nothing _without_ you!"

"Lana..." was all Lola could muster, frowning sympathetically at her sister.

And just as it looked like the twins would have a moment, a tear in the sky appeared, and from there came two things:

A giant, pink diamond, and several dozens of people sporting the same uniform as one of the lovechildren, Leia.

In fact, multiple Leias could be seen among the crowd of people, as well as Winstons, Penelopes, and one particular character:

Lindsey Sweetwater.

As the people approached the hydra, everybody there immediately noticed them.

"Who the heck are those guys?!" Luna exclaimed.

"They're not on our side, that's all you need to know!" Mrs. Johnson answered. "We'll deal with them, you keep attacking the hydra!"

The armored teachers and Mr. Universe leaped towards the invaders, while the fight with the hydra resumed.

As for the diamond, it was immediately sent plummeting down towards the center of Atlantis, with its shadow quickly looming over Lynn and Proto-Lana's fight, prompting them to narrowly dodge the diamond as it crashed right at the center. Then, it glew pink as the city levitated above the ocean, and flew up a bit higher.

With the giant diamond now firmly piercing the center of the Atlantis, and making the city float to boot, the top of the geometrical thing released a pillar of pink light, which slowly formed a pink, electric shield around the flying city.

Noticing this, Paige ran up to the mecha and smacked it as hard as she could, sending them flying out of the city moments before the shield completely covered Atlantis, trapping Paige, Lola, Lana, Lynn, Claire, Penelope, and Carol.

Oh, and Proto-Lana was there too, staring at the pink diamond, which started shaking violently.

"What the heck just happened?!" Lola exclaimed.

Lana walked closer to the shield and tried touching it, only for her hand to electrocuted before it slowly started being crystallized.

Seeing this, Carol went to Lana, morphed an energy blade from nothing and cut off Lana's whole arm before it too was crystallized.

"Okay, one thing's for sure!" Lana exclaimed, clutching her shoulder. "If we touch the shield, we're dead!"

Lola then turned to face the shaking diamond, and flinched as the very top shattered to pieces, revealing a familiar hand punching through it.

The figure then got off the giant gem, with everybody present reacting with shock as another figure, Leia, jumped out of the hole and rushed Claire, keeping her occupied.

With that taken care of, the figure stood on the edges of the broken top, and she looked at the sky before she slowly, literally looked down on everybody as they realized who it was:

Proto-Lola, sporting a malicious grin, and a half-burnt face.

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview...**

"Hi everybody, Lana here!"

Proto-Lola jumped out of the diamond and spoke a bit with Proto-Lana before the duo clashed.

"Figures that just when I had things under control, something or someone pops up and makes things worse."

Next scene showed the proto-twins crashing into the throne room, where their fight continued as Lynn soon entered the fray as well.

"It was hard fighting one progenitor; Now we gotta fight two!"

Then it showed the twins talking with Carol.

"What is it, Carol? You got a plan?"

Lana gasped and ran away, with the next scene showing Carol and Lola trying to reason with her.

"W-What?! I'm not going to do that!"

Meanwhile, Penelope nearly fell off what looked like the interior of the diamond, only to be rescued by a certain someone: Lindsey Sweetwater.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Meanwhile, Lincoln continued to face off against Proto-Lincoln, who started strangling him before the scene changed to show Leni taking off her earrings, and unleashing her velvet form once more.

"Atlantis Falls! A New King of the Jungle Has Been Chosen!"

A pillar of light emerged, and Proto-Lana tried to attack it, only to be stopped by Paige smacking her away.

"Don't miss it!"

The last scene involved a pair of eyes opening up, revealing diamond-shaped pupils with glittering lights.


	27. Fall of Atlantis

**Hello everybody, welcome to the grand finale of the Proto-Lana arc! And yes, it's another super chapter!**

 **Before we begin, I want to apologize for both taking so darn long to get this arc going, and for having to go on yet another hiatus after this one ends. Especially because, according to my beta reader A Hopeful observer, they'll return to school until next August, so beta reading will be a bit slower, and you know what that means: It'll take a little bit longer to write and edit the story.**

 **And just when it was catching up to speed, too. But don't worry, that doesn't mean we should be bummed out. We just need to wait, which, knowing the possible fandoms you guys may have been on before Loud House, could be something you're both used to, and prepared for just in case.**

 **Simply put, please be patient while the next arc is being written. I assure you, we'll try to make it worth your time. ;)**

 **And besides, It's not like Hope and I have something in mind to keep your hungry minds busy...**

 **And now, let's answer some reviews:**

 **1) Hatoralo: I thought that was established as early as the Introduction Arc?**

 **2) Nobody245: It feels good to do it again, doesn't it?**

 *** Unless I'm remembering wrong, while the Proto-Sisters did appear together, they didn't all attack at the same time, they did it one by one. The Proto-Sisters, unlike the other sisters, can't stand eachother and working together is probably a concept alien to them. Furthermore, each of them have a specific beef with their counterpart, and the only way to satiate it is to kill them themselves, lest they grow furious. For example, and this is just hypothetical, imagine if Proto-Lucy managed to kill Lynn before Proto-Lynn did it. Then you have to deal with a super angry Proto-Lynn, and she's hard enough to take on already!**

 *** What I meant to say was that Lynn could somehow sense Lola and Lana needed help, and seeing how everybody was mostly alright without her in the hydra's belly, and how everybody was striking from the outside, she figured she could be more useful to the twins. And no, I don't know what the blank's supposed to be.**

 **3) Observant Guest: Dude, you answered so much faster than I thought you would!**

 ***I kinda have a habit of making Chandler either neutral or sympathetic whenever I write for him... I think. I only remember "Cheer Up Lindsey/Walking Home," where he's neutral, "Conflicted Feelings," where he's neutral, and "Another Chance," where he tries to gain redemption from his bullying incident. And how weird, the former king of Bullies is compared to a prince. XD**

 *** I heard that boss battle theme, and holy crap, did it intensify those scenes so much!**

 *** When you have over 10 siblings, let alone a twin, an inferiority complex is bound to happen.**

 *** Nobody half-assedly insults Lincoln during Clyde's watch. Unless you're Ronnie Anne, but even then, he won't approve of it.**

 *** They're making progress, slowly but surely.**

 *** It's eerie how Sincoln and Zamasu are so alike. All that's left is for Sincoln to gain his own body and create "Clyde White," or possess some other close friend of Lincoln.**

 *** Gotcha, didn't I?**

 *** This is the last chapter for now, the hiatus begins now.**

 **4) animehero1000:**

 *** It's stronger than Sincoln's, if that helps.**

 *** I know what you're implying, and let me be blunt: If Clyde ever finds out about Lincolnism, he will try to eradicate it with his bare hands. Nobody fakes liking Lincoln to save their own asses on his watch.**

 *** You realized that sibling in-fights apply to the Proto-Sisters as much as the neo ones, right?**

 **5) ChernoMan:**

 *** I guess you're right...**

 *** It's okay, I sometimes forget stuff too.**

 *** Things never really go well for the Louds in the show, why would it be any different here?**

 *** Weird that the girl who's all about being number one in beauty pageants actually thinks about teamwork, right?**

 *** Lynn kinda likes to be the center of attention.**

 *** Surprise, motherfckuer! (Get the reference?)**

 *** Lindsey hasn't been seen since the Proto-Lola arc finale. In other words, a while.**

 *** I know right? Hyborg, what is she thinking?!**

 *** Let's see how this super chapter does in your opinion then... Assuming your jaw hasn't dropped all the way to the core of the Earth afterwards.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 27: Atlantis Falls! A New King of the Jungle Has Been Chosen!**

* * *

Back where we left off, everybody stood in shock as Proto-Lola jumped off the top of her Diamond Ship and landed a couple feet in front of Proto-Lana, who wasn't happy to see her at all.

"I thought I told you not to interfere!" Proto-Lana snapped at her twin sister.

"Right, because _you_ didn't lift a finger back when I was doing my pageant, and instead sent one of your lackies!" Proto-Lola scoffed with a smug grin. "Did you really think I was going to stand still and watch as you did my job?"

The prototype diva leaned closer to the prototype plumber as she hissed:

"The only one who's going to kill Jophiel is me, understand!?"

Proto-Lana spat right in Proto-Lola's face, causing her to back away a little as she chuckled maliciously.

"Well, I wanted to be nice and civil with you," Proto-Lola said as she wiped the spit off her face. "But I guess you just love to do it the hard way, don't you?"

The prototypes headbutted each other hard enough to send shockwaves across Atlantis before they teleported and took the fight to the skies, leaving Lynn alone.

"Hey! What about me!?" the jock yelled at the skies. "I came all the way over here and you go to fight someone else?!"

"Lynn! Stop yelling at the sky and hide!" Carol shouted as she, Lola, Lana, and Paige hid behind some rubble.

Not seeing any reason to go against Carol's orders, Lynn ran for cover, and was sent flying when the progenitors' fight sent a gust of wind at her direction.

Luckily, Carol managed to grab her and put her on the ground.

"Okay, everybody here?" Carol asked, adding as soon as Paige opened her mouth, "Everybody who's definitely relevant to the progenitors' defeat?"

Paige closed her mouth and nodded before she said:

"Okay, so, best case scenario, the progenitors keep fighting each other and eventually take the fight elsewhere."

Paige answered, scratching her head as she added, "Worst case scenario, they decide to focus and work together to kill us all."

"If they really are our counterparts, then we know that's not gonna happen," Lola remarked, growing worried as she though about it. "Then again, they do act a little bit different than us."

Everybody threw confused looks at Lola, prompting her to correct herself:

"Okay, they act _way_ more different than us."

Lana looked at Carol. "What should we do? We can't get in the middle of a fight between the progenitors, dealing with one was hard enough as it is!"

Carol scratched her chin as she tried to think of a plan, which would've been easier if it wasn't for the pressure put on her.

Eventually, she got an idea and turned to the twins:

"There's one way you can win."

The twins pointed at eachother, and Carol nodded. "Yes, you two."

"Uh, Carol, not to burst your bubble, but we don't have the best teamwork dynamic," Lola said, throwing a look at Lana as she added, "Especially since one of us seems to have a problem with it."

Lana looked elsewhere and narrowed her eyes.

"You're not going to be fighting them separately, Carol stated, getting the twins' attention. "You'll fight them as a single unit."

Lola and Lana raised an eyebrow, prompting Carol to add:

"You're going to fuse, together."

 ** _Meanwhile, with the falling mecha..._**

Clyde pulled all the levers and pushed all the buttons he could find in a desperate attempt to get the mecha to fly.

"Now I'm really wishing this thing had a manual!" Clyde exclaimed, before slamming his fist at the control panel. "Why isn't anything working!?"

Just then, the panel opened up to reveal Paige's Bun-Bun, who glared at the boy.

"There's a Bun-Bun in here?!" Clyde said, then got an idea. "Hey, are you the power source of this thing?"

The Bun-Bun nodded.

"Well, we're kinda in the middle of plummeting to our doom since the girl who operated this thing isn't here and the controls don't respond," the boy explained to the sentient plush toy. "So, if it's not too much of a problem, could you please get this thing on a flying mode or something?"

The Bun-Bun looked at a monitor in it's spot, showing they were rapidly approaching the ocean. Seeing this, they nodded, closed the panel, and moments later, the robot started flying once more, breaking the deadly fall and giving the kids some breathing space.

"Phew, that was a close one," Clyde took a deep breath and looked at the radar. "Alright, let's find a safe spot to land this thing-"

Then, one of the invaders from the pink portal flew past the mecha, with Clyde immediately maneuvering around the other incoming invaders before they flew back up and surrounded the mecha.

And one invader in particular caught Clyde's eye: A Leia with a pink spade-shaped birthmark on her cheek.

"Hey, I think I've seen you before," Clyde remarked through the speaker. "Didn't Penelope use you as a weapon?"

"All Leia-class lovechildren may look the same, but we don't share memories," the Leia sternly remarked before aiming her palm at the machine. "Now, surrender immediately!"

Clyde narrowed his eyes and looked at the monitor, which showed she had an enemy behind him. Seeing this, Clyde smiled and said:

"And what if I say no?"

The Leia lowered her arm and closed her eyes. "Nothing..."

Then she opened them, revealing they were glowing pink as she hissed, "Except this!"

Clyde flew the mecha upwards and the Winston behind him received the brunt of the beam the Leia shot, screaming as he was crystallized, then promptly sent plummeting to his death.

And though the Leia looked shocked for a moment, she immediately started spamming the beam against the mecha, which kept flying away so the other invaders were crystallized instead.

"Hmm, someone's aim is a little bit off," Clyde scoffed, getting the Leia's attention. "Don't you have some sharpshooting training or something?"

The Leia screamed and chased after the mecha, which flew away and dodged each and every eye beam she shot at it.

"Yup, that got her mad," Clyde casually remarked. "How's Lincoln doing back there, girls?"

"He still hasn't woken up!" Ronnie answered.

"Dang it," Clyde sighed. "Keep at it, I'll try to keep us alive!"

The girls nodded and started doing just that as Clyde continued maneuvering across the Leia's beams, which were turning faster and more aggressive...

 ** _Back at the Beach..._**

Lori and Leni's focus on the hydra fight was postponed when they turned around and saw Sam bringing both a stage and some music equipment with her.

"Is that Sam?" Lori asked. "What's she doing?"

"Whatever it is, we should, like, go see her," Leni remarked.

The girls nodded and ran up to the musician, who was trying to set up the speakers. But before they could even get a word in, Sam said:

"If you're not here to help me, then scram, I need to build this as fast as I can!"

The duo exchanged confused looks and asked, "Why?"

Sam, blatantly irritated, walked to the pair and whispered her plan to them. And judging from their reaction, it was quite the crazy plan.

"Are you sure that's, like, a good idea?!" Leni exclaimed. "Your sisters and her friends are inside the monster right now!"

Sam paused, then shook her head. "Tabby will be fine."

Upset at this statement, Lori stomped towards Sam and hissed, "And what about the others?! Polly Pain, Haiku, Giggles-"

Lori grabbed Sam's shoulders and pulled her closer to her as she snapped:

"What about Ronnie Anne!?"

"As long as she and the rest stay close to Tabby, they'll be fine too!" a nervous Sam exclaimed. "Now stop yelling at me and help!"

Sam freed herself from Lori's grasp and resumed her progress on the set-up, while the eldest sisters looked back at the fight.

Lori, in particular, pointed something out. "If the hydra's immobilized, then that would guarantee a direct hit..."

Then, Leni shouted, "Girls! Try to, like, immobilize the hydra thingie while we prep over here!"

And as the eldest sisters helped Sam, the rest of the team were baffled by their request.

"Immobilize it?" Luna asked. "Not like the thing is doing the monster mash."

"Who cares?!" Chandler exclaimed. "Your sisters obviously have a plan to hurt this thing, so if it has to be stunned to work, then we need to do that!"

"But how?!" Kiki exclaimed. "This thing's massive! We would need something big to hit it with!"

Upon hearing that, Luan looked at the scenery and noticed one big, very important thing: The ocean was, believe it or not, mostly water!

And the comedian did have the ability to control water, using puns of course...

"Lucy?" Luan asked.

The goth flinched. "Yes, Luan?"

"The ocean is filled with water," Luan winked at her sister. "Right?"

Lucy smiled. "Yes."

Luan chuckled and narrowed her eyes as she quipped:

"Well, _water_ the chances?!"

A pair of giant water hands came from the ocean as Luan lifted her own hands, then grabbed the beast's feet before morphing the hands into chains, then repeating it to chain the monster's necks.

However, despite this, the beast still had one more trick up it's sleeve: it aimed it's heads up, charged energy in their mouths, then shot a giant fireball-like projectile that exploded into hundreds of small meteorite-like objects that rained down on the beach.

Luckily, Leni shielded herself, Lori and Sam from the strike, and everybody else reunited with Lucy as she generated a light shield around them, which did a decent job at blocking the meteorites.

"Okay, Lucy, Luan, yiu need to keep this up until Lori and Leni finish their stuff," Luna said. "Can you do it?"

"Yeah, I think so!" Luan replied.

Luna turned to the goth. "What about you, Lucy?"

However, Lucy remained silent, focusing solely on maintaining the shield, lest everybody suffer death by discount meteorite.

And while that happened, the teachers and Mr. Universe continued facing off against the invaders, all while also trying to avoid the meteorites as well.

Luckily, some of those meteorites hit some of the invaders, like the Leia Mr. Universe was fighting against.

"Whoa, mama!" Mr. Universe exclaimed, narrowly dodging an incoming projectile before Mrs. Johnson caught him. "These things-"

And then, he spotted the sole Lindsey Sweetwater invader fighting alongside the Leias and Winstons.

"Lindsey?!" the man exclaimed.

"Universe, don't get fooled!" Mrs. Johnson barked, getting the man's attention. "She may look like your daughter, but she's just one of thousands of Lindseys the progenitors have enslaved!"

Mrs. Johnson lowered her head. "And even if she was the real deal, there's no guarantee she'd still recognize you."

Mr. Universe's smile faltered as he too looked down, nearly missing the mecha as it flew by.

"Hey, need a little help?" Clyde asked through the speaker.

"Mr. McBride?!" Mrs. Johnson gasped in disbelief. "How did you-?!"

"Long story short, someone let me borrow this thing, and I'm in the same boat as you," Clyde explained as he dodged the chasing Leia's attack, then struck her downwards with a metallic kick. "The meteors are new, though."

"Where's Lincoln?" Mrs. Johnson asked.

"Right here, recovering from his injuries," Clyde made the mecha point to it's back. "But he hasn't woken up yet. Why do you ask?"

"I've read that Lincoln is feared by all chain breakers-"

Clyde raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

"The kids we're fighting!" Mrs. Johnson snapped. "Anyway, if Mr. Loud was awake, then he could make them retreat just by being here!"

"Is that so?" Clyde turned to see the biker trio still trying to get Lincoln to wake up. "I guess that's another reason for him to wake up."

And as he saw the boy wasn't responding to the trio's pleading, Clyde frowned, then shook it off and put his focus on the fight once more.

 ** _Inside Lincoln's Mind..._**

The boy soon regained consciousness, only to find himself tied down by some cables, with Sincoln nearby, trying in vain to connect to both machines.

"Sincoln, what are you doing!?" Lincoln exclaimed as he tried to break free.

"Lincoln! My name is Lincoln!" Sincoln snapped in denial. "And what else? I'm trying to take control of this stupid body!"

"Sincoln, I already told you, we need to work together!" Lincoln stated, earning a furious look from his lookalike. "If we don't join forces-"

"When will you take a damn hint, Junior!?" Sincoln snapped. "Your time to shine is over! No more spotlight for you! You made me look like an ass when we fought "Lana" and I'm never going to give you the chance to humilliate me like that ever again!"

Sincoln folded his arms and walked back to the machine as he said, "You want something done right, you gotta do it yourself."

Lincoln gritted his teeth at his prototype's unreasonability, and then, he got an idea:

"Wait a minute, this is my mind," he said to himself. "So, if that's the case..."

Lincoln closed his eyes, and not only did the cables keeping him captive cease to exist, but several more cables burst from the wall, grabbed Sincoln and forcefully trapped him in the power machine.

"Hey! What the hell is going on!?" Sincoln yelled. "What did you do, Junior!?"

"Well, since this is my mind, logically, my thoughts would translate into reality, right?" Lincoln explained as he walked to the consciousness machine. "So, I simply made sure that you cooperated with me."

Sincoln rolled his eyes. "What are you even talking about?"

Lincoln stopped on his tracks and stated:

"We're going to work together: I will take control of the consciousness, while I use your powers, however that works. And after seeing how you were acting before..."

Lincoln shot a glare at Sincoln and calmly growled:

"I'm not giving you a say in the matter."

Angered by the statement, Sincoln broke free from his restraints and tackled Lincoln, pinning him to the ground as he exclaimed:

"This is my mind too, you inconsiderate brat! And I'm not going to let a freeloading jackass like you take away the spotlight I deserve!"

Lincoln punched Sincoln back and got back up as he retorted:

"It doesn't matter who controls the body! What matters is that we regain consciousness to help!"

Sincoln wiped a bit of blood going down his lip, and snapped:

"If you're gonna be an unreasonable little brat, then you leave me no choice!"

Sincoln roared as he ran after Lincoln, who clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes, realizing Sincoln wouldn't listen to reason.

 ** _Meanwhile, with the Sadie Hawkins team..._**

The girls and Ronnie Anne's shock finally wore off, allowing them to take a slightly closer look at the hydra's heart, and most importantly, the people inside: Liam and Hattie.

"Liam?" Tabby blurted. "I-Is that you?"

"Yeah, and believe me, I wish we had met under other circumstances," the country boy replied.

"H-How did you even get stuck in there?!" Tabby asked, only to come to a realization. "Wait a minute... Are you and your cousin the base of the monster?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that, but yes, that's the gist of it," Liam answered. "Sorry."

With that confirmation, the Sadie Hawkins dates and Ronnie Anne reunited.

"We can't destroy the heart or do too much damage to it," Tabby stated. "We might hurt Liam!"

Haiku looked elsewhere. "Says the one that wanted to kill the hydra more than anyone."

Tabby narrowed her eyes. "That was _before_ I found out I'd have to hurt someone important to me!"

"Alright, everybody calm down," Giggles said. "What matters now is figuring out how to get those two out of the heart."

"Clown-O has a good point," Ronnie Anne remarked, earning an annoyed look from Giggles. "If we take those guys out of the heart and get them to safety, then we can destroy this thing with no hassle."

"And who knows, maybe the heart will fall apart without them, and we kill two birds with one stone," Polly added. "Now all we need to figure out how to free them."

Tabby got an idea and turned to Haiku. "You still got your scythe?"

"Sure, but I sure as heck am not going anywhere near that thing," Haiku stated as she handed her scythe to Tabby. "You go instead."

"And I'll go too," Ronnie Anne stated. "I saw Chandler cut things with those lighting bladed of his, maybe I can do something like that too."

Tabby nodded. "Alright, I take out Liam, and you take out his cousin."

The team separated, and Ronnie Anne tried to generate a pair of lighting blades as she walked with Tabby towards the giant heart.

And as soon as she noticed this, the rocker said, "You only need one blade, you know?"

With that said, Ronnie Anne focused her lighting energy on one hand, and successfully created a lighting blade, giving Tabby a thumbs up with her free hand afterwards.

And in what seemed like an instant after Tabby smiled and nodded, Ronnie Anne got a vision:

What looked like the prototype version of Tabby, looking identical sans a purple scarf around her neck, returned the thumbs up before she jumped off the platform, followed by Ronnie Anne doing the same, revealing they were diving straight into a large battlefield, filled with several prototypes.

The vision ended right then and there, however, leaving the girl perplexed and confused as to what happened.

Before they could take another step, however, a laser sprouted from the wall and shot a beam at them, forcing them to stop mere steps away from the explosive blast.

"You're not getting anywhere near him!"

Tabby and Ronnie Anne looked at the heart, and saw Hattie looking at them furiously, her purple eyes glowing as she shook violently.

"Listen, we don't want to hurt your cousin!" Tabby stated. "We just want to get both of you out!"

The heart sprouted an arm, which Hattie used to point at Ronnie Anne. "Not if she's on your side!"

Ronnie Anne looked at the pointing finger, then glared back at Hattie as the girl continued:

"She's nothing more than a tormentor of the innocent, and slayer of harmless romance! Anybody who ever loved somebody other than the lord had to face her wrath, and as if to piss us off even more, she herself betrayed the savior who she obeyed! She's no friend of anybody, she's-"

Suddenly, the arm was sliced in half, but the one who cut it wasn't Ronnie Anne.

It was Tabby, who glared at Hattie as Ronnie Anne and the rest of the dates gasped in shock.

"This sort of topic always angered me; Who cares about stuff that happened millions of years ago, by entirely different people?" Tabby pondered out loud. "In case you haven't noticed, this is a new reality, with entirely new people inhabiting it!"

"People who are successors of the tormented and tormentors!" Hattie snapped. "She may not be the same person who did it, but she has her memories, and as her successor, she's fated to repeat her mistakes!"

Tabby smirked. "Fate doesn't exist anymore; Everybody controls their own lives now."

"Fate does exist, and his name is Lincoln Loud!" Hattie hissed. "And if you won't respect him and his divine grace by will, then you shall do so by force!"

Hattie made several types of weaponry sprout from the wall and ceiling, each of them aiming at Ronnie Anne and the Sadie Hawkins dates.

Yes, all of them.

"H-Hey, what's the big deal!?" Haiku exclaimed as she gripped her light scythe. "We three were just standing here!"

"You were her partners too! Her crimes are your crimes!" Hattie exclaimed. "You will all die in this miserable abomination of a creature, and you'll only have The Heartbreaker to blame!"

"Here she goes again with her fanaticism," Liam muttered.

Seeing no choice, the rest of the dates got ready to fight, with Tabby and Ronnie Anne gritting their teeth and narrowing their eyes with determination.

 ** _Back at Atlantis..._**

"What?!" the twins exclaimed in unison.

"You're going to fuse into a singular being, which should boost your powers considerably, and then you'll fight against your prototype counterparts," Carol explained. "It's fairly simple, really: As long as you can maintain the fusion for a while, you should be able to beat them."

"Okay, that's all good and stuff, but what will happen to us?!" Lana exclaimed, pulling her hair. "Will we still exist? Will we just vanish until It's over?"

Then, the tomboy looked elsewhere and narrowed her eyes as she asked a third question:

"And who will be the dominant half of the fusion?"

Lola frowned and looked at her sister with sympathy, only to watch as Lana stood up and ran away.

"Lana, wait!" Lola exclaimed as she gave chase. "Leaving cover right now is too dangerous!"

"Yeah, I figured this would happen," Paige said, shaking her head. "I mean, who wouldn't be shocked or conflicted about something like fusion?"

Carol didn't answer the question. Instead, she stood up and tried to run after the twins.

Then Lynn stopped her. "Just one more question, before you go talk to them."

"If it's about the fusion technique, then forget about it," Paige stated. "It's something better left for after we survive this chaos!"

"No. I was gonna ask if anybody's seen Clyde's girlfriend?" Lynn remarked. "I didn't see her when everybody hid from the fakers' fight."

Carol's eyes widened and she looked around. "Now that you mention it, where is she?"

The cross-caste quickly shook her head. "We don't have time for this! Paige, you go see if you can find Skippy, get him out of danger."

The girl nodded and stood up as Carol looked at Lynn and said, "Lynn, you try and see if you can keep both progenitors occupied."

"No need to tell me twice; I've been itching to get some payback with Lola's prototype," Lynn cracked her knuckles. "And you're going to talk to the twins and convince them to fuse?"

Carol sighed. "I'm going to try."

 ** _Meanwhile, with Penelope..._**

The girl hid behind some rubble, where she took a peek of the Claire-Leia fight.

"If there's somebody that knows why Progenitor Lola is here, It's a Leia," Penelope said to herself. "Luckily, I know how to get her to spill the beans!"

"Hey, Leia!" Penelope exclaimed as she jumped out of hiding. "Remember me!?"

Leia turned to face the redheaded nerd, but she simply turned back to Claire and snapped, "Where's Lizy!?"

"I already told you, she didn't come!" Claire yelled in return. "She remained in Lanaspace, like Mother Lana told her to!"

"But that's ridiculous! The lovechildren are supposed to be by their progenitors' side at all times!" Leia snapped, and sprouted large, spiky crystals from the back of her hands. "You're lying, I'm sure of it! Tell me where she is before I skewer your insides!"

"Hey, don't ignore me!" Penelope snapped.

Next thing the redhead knew, Leia was _this_ close to shoving her crystal through her chin as she hissed:

"You stay quiet, or I'll disembowel you and make a chair out of your crystallized corpse!"

Penelope nodded, and Leia went right back to threatening Claire, who wasn't fazed at the threat presented. And while they continued their little spat, Penelope spotted the pink diamond in the distance and ran up and close to it.

Once close enough, Penelope got on the wall and started to climb it, only for said wall to circle around, giving the redhead access to the interior while also getting her trapped in there. So she got off, landed on the crystal ground, and Penelope dusted herself as she looked at her surroundings.

The whole place basically looked like a giant, pink crystal pyramid, with several bridges leading either up or down the thing.

But the one thing that mattered to Penelope the most was the bridge above her, where she saw Lindsey Sweetwater sitting on the edge, looking at the sky with a forlorn look.

"That must be the Lindsey that Chandler was talking about!" Penelope said to herself as she started running forward. "I just gotta get up to her bridge somehow and convince her to come back!"

 ** _Meanwhile, at the Throne Room..._**

Skippy, the only one left in the desolate, destroyed room, walked back and forth as he tried to think of what to do.

"I can't believe this! First Mother Lana and Lana start fighting each other, then Lana starts worrying about me even though I called her Lola, and now Progenitor Lola joined the fray!" the boy said in a panic. "And knowing her, she won't let anybody leave until she's satisfied."

The boy sat down and sighed. "If only I had been given the choice to back away from Lincolnism..."

Then, as if on cue, Paige burst from the window and grabbed the summoner.

"Paige?!" Skippy exclaimed. "What are you doing here?!"

"No time to explain!" Paige stated. "All you need to know is that things are going to get hectic!"

The duo escaped just as Proto-Lana and Proto-Lola burst from the other wall, resuming their fight.

Proto-Lana crashed through a pillar, and gathering control of the rubble, she threw it at Proto-Lola, who simply froze it with an ice breath, thencut it to pieces with her claws.

However, Proto-Lana one-upped her, leaping from her spot towards her, then sending her flying to the ceiling with a kick, before generating a row of stalagmites on the ground.

Proto-Lola regained her footing on the ceiling, and generated a set of icicles before she and Proto-Lana threw the stuff at each other, with most of it missing and damaging the building instead.

Then, Proto-Lola jumped down and tried elbowing her sister, who simply jumped out of the way and generated a giant rock fist to punch her with, though once the shock of the impact wore off, Proto-Lola just froze the thing and shattered it to pieces.

"Hey!"

The prototypes ceased fighting for the meantime and turned to see the source of the voice was none other than Lynn, who threw a stern glare at both of them.

"Would you look at that, if it isn't Camael herself," Proto-Lola spoke with a condescending tone. "I thought you would tuck your tail between your legs and run away from this conflict."

"Think again, Not-Lola!" Lynn snapped, giving the prototype the pointer finger. "You might've given me a beating in our last fight, but I'm not going to let you hurt my sisters again!"

Proto-Lola smirked. "I don't remember having fought you before."

Then she turned her fingernails into claws. "And I certainly won't remember having killed you."

And then Proto-Lana punched her sister away, hissing at Lynn, "Stay out of this, Camael! Lola's mine!"

Proto-Lana leaped towards the prototype diva, and Lynn cracked her knuckles and sprouted fire wings from her back, determined to join the fight.

 ** _Meanwhile, with the twins..._**

Lana avoided eye contact with Lola, who looked at her with worry as Carol arrived at the scene.

"I know what you're going to say, Carol, but I can't do it," Lana stated. "I won't do it."

"Lana, it's the only chance we have of defeating both our counterparts!" Lola said. "We just do this fusion thing and end this!"

"You don't understand, Lola," Lana frowned. "Ever since you achieved your angel form, I've tried to catch up to you, but even when I did, you always took center stage: The tag team training, the beach stuff, and now fusion!"

Lana lowered her head. "I want to feel independent. I want to feel like I'm someone different than you. That I'm my own person... and yet, everything somehow revolves around you, and if we fuse together, that means I give up on being my own person!"

"Lana, that's not true," Carol said, shaking her head.

"How!?" the girl snapped at the teenager. "We're literally merging together into a singular being, we're both giving up our identities, our existence, to create someone new!"

"Lana, I've been through the process before, and while I understand your fear, you have nothing to worry about," Carol walked to the girl and put a hand on her shoulder. "You and Lola will still exist, you just have to work together in order to do it."

"And hey, once we deal with one of our counterparts, we can unfuse and deal with the last one individually," Lola suggested. "We don't have to stay fused forever."

Lana glanced at her twin sister, who gave her a reassuring smile as she turned back to her base form, then back at Carol, who did the same, prompting the girl to take a deep breath and state as she too went back to base:

"Fine, I'll do it."

 ** _Back at the Belly of the Beast..._**

Ronnie Anne and the Sadie Hawkins dates continued dodging the barrage of lasers and beams shot by Hattie, all while Liam tried to calm his cousin down.

"Hattie, please, stop this horseplay!" Liam pleaded. "There's no need to get so riled up over nothing!"

"I'm not getting riled up over nothing!" Hattie snapped in return. "I'm getting riled up over something justified!"

"As long as she keeps shooting everywhere, we won't get close enough to free her and Liam!" Tabby exclaimed.

And then, Ronnie Anne remembered Clyde's words:

" _Not every battle needs to be won through sheer force._ "

With this, Ronnie Anne got an idea:

"I'll make the lasers and the other weapons concentrate on me! You and the rest focus on destroying them when you get the chance!"

Ronnie Anne jumped forward and scoffed, "Hey! Why are you trying to hit everyone at once? Why not focus on a single, easier target?"

"You're all guilty of the same blasphemous act!" Hattie snapped. "Even though, you were the one who started it..."

Then everything started being aimed at Ronnie Anne. "New plan! I'm killing you first!"

Ronnie Anne smirked. "Good!"

 ** _Meanwhile, Outside..._**

"Ready!"

That was said by Sam as she, Lori, and Leni finished setting up the speakers, with the rocker holding a guitar plugged to said speakers.

"How much power will this have?" Lori asked. "Like, literally speaking, how powerful will it be?"

"Enough to disorient that thing," Sam stated. "You may want to cover your ears!"

And back inside, the team successfully managed to execute Ronnie's plan: They sliced and destroyed the machinery aiming at the girl, only for Tabby to suddenly sense Sam's incoming plan as well.

"Everybody, with me!" Tabby shouted.

The rest of the dates and Ronnie Anne ran up to Tabby, who expanded her shield to cover all of them as well, and just in time too, since Sam's titanic singing struck the monster's insides soon afterwards.

The singing destroyed the machines outside, disoriented Liam and Hattie, and on the outside, made the beast feel dizzy and lose their balance while some of the team were sent flying elsewhere. In particular, Kiki, Margo, and Lucy fell close together, while Luan remained in her spot moments before she followed the dizzy creature.

A balance that eventually made it tip-toe all the way over to Margo, Kiki, and Lucy, with Margo pushing Kiki away, only for Lucy to push Margo away before the beast fell on top of them, and Luan got ready to leap for her sister.

Sadly, she was too late: Lucy was left alone to be flattened by the beast, shocking everyone nearby as Luan dropped to the ground, and the realization of what happened struck her.

"Lucy!" Luan yelled at the top of her lungs in disraught.

And the yell could be heard from the inside of the beast, just as Tabby undid the shield.

"I sense something awful happened to Lucy," Haiku remarked. "We need to get out of here and see what's going on outside!"

"We still need to cut Liam and Hattie free, though," Tabby pointed out. "Preferably before something else happens-"

And then, something else happened: A figure burst through the top of the beast's stomach and landed right in front of the team, who got a good look at the figure that just arrived.

And it was none other than Carlota, donning her Pink Champion outfit.

"Great, you again," Polly said in exasperation.

 _ **Back at Atlantis...**_

Lynn crashed on the ground and was pinned by Proto-Lana and Proto-Lola, who looked sternly at her.

"I warned you to stay out of the fight, Camael," Proto-Lana growled.

"Seriously, you should've known you were outmatched from the start," Proto-Lola scoffed. "If you couldn't win back then, what made you think you could win now?"

Lynn chuckled and breathed fire at the prototypes, making them instinctively jump away.

"Did you really think I was trying to defeat you?" Lynn asked as she stood up and dusted herself. "All I was trying to do is keep you busy!"

The prototypes raised an eyebrow, confused as to what the athlete meant, only for a pillar of blue and pink light to rise from nearby.

The pillar of light was so intense, in fact, the prototypes blocked their eyes and backed away.

"What the hell is that thing!?" Proto-Lola shouted.

"Whatever it is, I'm not letting it stay!" Proto-Lana exclaimed.

Then, she leaped straight for the pillar as she proclaimed: "I'm not letting anybody else invade my kingdom!"

Proto-Lana was then sent back by Paige, who jumped out of nowhere and sent her flying away with a smack from her hammer.

"Yeah, you're not interrupting that on my watch!" the girl stated as Lynn reunited with her.

"Paige, is that you?" Proto-Lola asked sternly. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Paige smirked. "I'm helping the Louds earn their first victory against you."

"But you're a lincolnist!" Proto-Lana exclaimed. "You should be working for us!"

"Neither of you are my progenitor, Mother Lisa is," Paige stated. "And besides, just 'cause I'm loyal to Lincoln doesn't mean I'm loyal to you."

The prototypes gritted their teeth in rage, and the light finally dissipated, revealing an entirely new being that came from the rubble.  
She was a girl slightly taller than the twins, sporting a red tiara, long hair tied in a ponytail styled like a cape, a mixture of both girls' swimsuits, and eyes with diamond-shaped pupils, and glittering shines.

Finally, when she looked at her palms, she saw she had both Lola and Lana's birthmarks, though they had a slightly different shape.

The girl briefly glanced at the progenitors, then began looking around the place. She grabbed a moderately-sized rock with ease, them clutched it hard before making it sprout spikes from within it. But these weren't normal spikes: They were made out of crystal.

And as the girl smiled at what this meant, the prototypes snapped:

The girl smiled and threw the spiked rock up in the air, before whipping their sash at it.

"We're neither Lola, nor Lana Loud," the girl stated. "We are..."

The sash finished tying itself to the spiked rock, allowing the girl to make it drop to reveal it had formed some sort of mace. She then lifted her improvised mace and boasted:

"Lala Loud!"

 _ **Blank Void...**_

The twins slowly woke up, and found themselves sitting in the middle of a seemingly blank void, though there was certainly some sort of ground.

"What is this place?" Lana asked as she looked around the void. "And how did fusing lead us here?"

"I don't know, but it feels like there should be something here," Lola said as she touched the ground. "Maybe we just need to turn on the lights?"

"Where?" Lana scanned the void. "I don't see a light switch anywhere."

"You don't need a light switch."

The twins turned around, and spotted a pair of humanoid figures floating in front of them.

"Who are you?" Lana asked.

"Lana, that's not the right question to ask," Lola said. "Instead, you should be asking: Who are you?!"

"That's literally the same thing I just asked, you just put more emotion into it," the plumber spoke. "What's the difference?"

"Well, one's clearly more fitting given the context," Lola pointed at the figures. "Like, for example, seeing a pair of floating, glowing figures in the middle of a void."

"You're the ones who consider this a void, and thus, it remains a void," one of the figures said. "And it will remain a void unless you do something about it."

"Think of what you want this place to be, and it will change accordingly," the other figure said. "Think of something you both would like it to be."

The twins exchanged looks, then smiled as they then thought about the void being something else, which it turned into soon after:

One half of the void became like a cave, while the other turned into a fashion show, with both sides having a throne with a control panel in front of them.

The twins' form also changed, turning into an orange bodysuit with navy blue and pink highlights respectively.

"Alright!" Lana chirped as she sat on the rock throne. "Let's get this show started!"

"I don't know, orange and pink don't mix well with me," Lola remarked as she walked to her fashion throne. "I think blue and pink would work better."

Lola's bodysuit turned from orange to blue, cheering up the girl as she sat down.

"Say, before we begin," Lana turned to the figures, who were just... floating there. "Who the heck are you guys?"

"Our real identities don't matter," said one of the figures. "What matters is that you take advantage of this chance to defeat the impostors!"

"Also," the other figure snapped their fingers. "Commencing synchronization."

Before the twins could say anything in response, cables came out of their thrones and connected themselves to their necks and back of their heads, allowing them to see through Lala's eyes.

Speaking of Lala, the fusion swung her mace at Proto-Lola, who simply moved out of the way as she flew towards the fusion.

However, Lala simply swung it to the side and caught Proto-Lola in it, with the prototype barely realizing what happened before the spiked ball hit her in the face.

Then, Proto-Lana burst from the ground and tried slashing the fusion in half, only for Lala to jump up and kick her straight into her mace, with both prototypes hitting each other before swinging them at a large building, cutting the sash to send them straight into it.

With that done, Lala got on one foot and started spinning her sash around, giggling as Carol watched her and smiled with relief.

"For a first time fusion, Lala's surprisingly stable," Carol said to herself. "Now, if the twins can stay synchronized, this battle'll be a piece of cake!"

Om the other side, Lynn, Skippy, and Paige looked at the fusion with mixed reactions.

"Who is that girl?" Skippy asked. "And how is she able to stand against Mother Lana and Progenitor Lola?"

"That, Skippy, is Lala Loud, a fusion between a Lola and a Lana Loud," Paige explained with a reassuring smile. "And the reason they can stand against the progenitors is because they're made from the rightful heirs of the Lola and Lana caste."

"I don't see what the big fuzz is all about," Lynn remarked, placing her arms behind her head. "I mean yeah, she looks cool, and did manage to land a hit on the fakers, but I haven't seen her do anything incredible yet-"

Then, Proto-Lana and Proto-Lola emerged from the rubble and dashed towards the fusion girl, who simply giggled and slapped her sash against the ground.

Three rows burst from the ground: One being stalactites, one being crystals, and one being a mix of both, the middle one heading straight for the prototypes.

But when they tried to play smart and fly away, the other two rows suddenly stopped and created a rock wall and an ice wall, the prototypes crashing into them before the walls sent them crashing into the middle row, where a giant rock fist grabbed them and slammed them into the ground.

"Okay, I'll admit it," Lynn smiled. "That was impressive."

And in fact, the sight caught the attention of Leia and Claire, who put their fight on hold to watch the scene from afar.

"So, that's the thing I've heard about so much," Leia said, narrowing her eyes as she stated, "A Loud fusion."

"A fusion?!" Claire exclaimed, sharing her horror with Watterson. "Why are we still fighting with each other?! We should be running away while we still can!"

The giant dog and wolf girl were stopped on their tracks when Watterson's feet were encased in ice. And when they turned around, they saw Leia's eyes glowing as she hissed:

"And if you dare flee, I'll crystallize you whole!"

Leia's eyes turned back to normal as she explained:

"We're fighting because not only did Mother Lola trap us here, but you dared to interfere when my Eidoleias were dealing with the cross-caste!"

Leia bared her crystal claws.

"I'm not letting you go until you pay for that, so don't be a coward, and face me!"

Claire gritted her teeth, seeing there was no way around dealing with Leia.

 _ **Meanwhile, back inside the diamond...**_

Penelope came out of a door, and landed on a platform different from where Lindsey was. In fact, she was like three platforms above her.

"Ugh, that's the fifth time I've reached a dead-end!" the girl complained, folding her arms. "I swear, if I didn't know any better, I'd say this place was designed by Escher himself!"

However, Penelope's whining was suddenly stopped when the diamond violently shook, sending her falling off into the abyss below...

Or so she thought, for when she noticed she had stopped in mid-air, she saw she was being held by a yo-yo used by none other than Lindsey Sweetwater, who looked at her with worry.

"Are you okay?" Lindsey asked as she pulled Penelope up.

"Yeah, thanks to you," Penelope answered, dusting herself as she asked, "But, how did that little yo-yo manage to lift me? I mean, I'm not saying I'm fat or heavy, but-"

"I get what you mean," Lindsey sighed. "This is a magical yo-yo from another dimension. At least, that's what Lola's counterpart told me."

"Uh huh, that'll be good for now," Penelope said as she grabbed Lindsey's arm. "Now listen, things are going to get really crazy in this place, so we need to leave right now!"

However, Lindsey refused to budge.

"Girl, didn't you hear me?" Penelope put her hands on her hips. "We need to go, now!"

"Lola's counterpart was very clear when she told me she wanted me to stay here!" Lindsey snapped. "And besides, even if we do get out, how do you expect we'll get off this place without falling in the ocean?!"

Penelope winced, not having thought of that. But then, she got an idea.

"Okay, how about this," she started. "Once this Lola's counterpart is defeated, you'll follow me and we'll come up with an escape plan, together."

Lindsey raised an eyebrow, clearly incredulous at the idea. Nevertheless, she shrugged, nodded, and allowed Penelope to sit with her and wait to be proven either right, or wrong.

 _ **Meanwhile, at the Organization...**_

Becky entered a room filled with monitors, only to find Lisa and Lily there as well, watching one of said monitors.

"What are you doing here!?" Becky snapped at the girls.

"Well, we were left alone with no activities to partake in, so we concluded that, if you're not going to supervise us, we might as well do whatever we please," Lisa explained, with Lily nodding in agreement. "That's how things operate in our house, anyway."

"Well, news flash, kid: This isn't your house!" Becky scolded. "This is a high-security organization meant to help protect our dimension from destruction!"

"Then why bring a pair of curious children to such an important building?" Lisa pointed out.

"That was your parents' idea, not mine!" Becky folded her arms. "And since they're busy trying to get progenitorial blood for their weapons plan, I can't call them out on it!"

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Progenitorial what-now?"

"Whatever, point is, you're not allowed to play around here!" Becky grabbed the girls and lifted them. "I have work to do, so I'll leave you on the actual playground, and you stay quiet, okay?"

"But we wanted to see how Lola and Lana's fusion dealt with their progenitors!" Lisa whined, flailing her arms up and down.

Becky dropped the girls, and uttered "What?" in sheer disbelief.

Lily followed by pointing at a monitor screen, showing Lala fighting Proto-Lana and Proto-Lola. Becky walked closer to the screen, and getting a worried look, said under her breath:

"Oh no..."

 _ **Back at the Beach...**_

Lori, Leni, and Sam stood shocked at the sight of what had just happened: Lucy being crushed by the hydra.

Sam, in particular, looked horrified. "Oh no, that wasn't supposed to happen! I mean, I wanted to follow Dad's footsteps, but not like this!"

And while Lori took a deep breath and tried to stay calm, Leni took off her earrings and walked to Lori, stating:

"Lori, hold these for me."

The oldest sister silently grabbed the earrings as Leni cracked her knuckles and her eyes began glowing a velvet color as she took a couple steps forward.

"Sam, I think you should run," Lori suggested. "Like, literally right now."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "What? Why?"

"Don't ask, just do it!" the girl stated. "Otherwise, your life will end right here, right now!"

But it was too late. Leni clenched her fists, and then spread her arms and yelled at the top of her lungs, unleashing an intense gust of wind as her sorrow and agony could be heard in her shouting.

The team nearby had to put all their strength not to be blown away by the wind, and the same could be said about Lori and Sam.

"Goodness gracious dude, that's one hell of a heavy metal scream!" Luna shouted. "I mean, I get her anger, but this is still a little overkill!"

"She's not angry," Luan remarked, realizing something. "She's sad!"

Luna's eyes widened at the revelation, which was so shocking, the invaders were sent flying away, with Clyde and the teachers just barely managing to stay in their spot.

Finally, Leni stopped screaming, and ran towards the hydra as lighting surged through her body.

 _ **Inside the Hydra...**_

The Sadie Hawkins dates and Ronnie Anne hid inside a soundproof shield, which Tabby undid as the team saw Carlota cutting open the heart, then take out Liam and Hattie from it.

She then dropped the kids in front of the team, and Ronnie Anne barely processed this before Carlota went to the ceiling, cut open a diamond-shaped hole, then fled as soon as she could.

And likewise, Ronnie Anne barely managed to notice this before she, the dates, Liam, and Hattie were sent flying out of the hydra by Leni lifting the beast, then throwing it off into the distance before leaping to keep beating it.

Luckily, the team landed safely on the sand and the sisters and co checked on them.

"Ronnie Anne, are you okay?!" Luan asked as she helped the girl get up. "Please tell us you're alive!"

Ronnie Anne threw an "are you serious?" look at the joker. "Well, if I was dead, would I be able to say anything?"

Luan thought about it and nodded. "Good point."

And as everybody else checked if the rest of the team and the kids were okay, Luan and Ronnie Anne looked at Leni beating up the beast in the distance, showcasing an inhuman ferocity to her attacks.

"Fashion-O is scary when she's mad," Ronnie Anne said.

Luan could only nod in agreement.

 _ **Meanwhile, at the Lincolnism Church...**_

Mabel tried fixing her eye spy, whose screen was showing nothing but static.

"Come on, start working, you stupid thing!" Mabel snapped. "I need to see what's going on!"

One hit later, the signal returned, allowing the girl to watch the battle between the invaders and the teachers and Clyde.

Sadly, just in time moment, Beverly and Cookie arrived.

"Mabel, why are you still watching the beach?" Cookie asked. "The lord and savior isn't there, so there's nothing to see!"

"Just because Lincoln isn't in the picture doesn't mean the world around him stops spinning," Mabel answered. "Besides, he is there, he's just hidden for his safety."

"Hidden?!" Cookie asked as she pushed Mabel aside and went as close to the screen as possible. "Who would dare block the view of the lord and savior?!"

"Cookie, please, tone it down a little!" Beverly pleaded, clasping her hands as Cookie checked the screen. "Angering Paige is one thing, but you're annoying a member of the second strongest caste in all of Lincolnism!"

"Quit being a worrywart, it's nearly impossible to anger Mabel anyway."

And then, the blonde fashionista stood up, dusted herself, then slowly turned to face Cookie while the girl was too focused on the eye to notice her.

And as Mabel lunged at Cookie and started beating her up, the eye's signal returned, showing Clyde flying and landing at the shore.

"Okay, we can take this moment to relax while the rest of the teachers deal with the invaders," Clyde said as he opened the mecha and jumped out. "Girls, how's Lincoln doing?"

The girls jumped out with an unconscious Lincoln as Ronnie exclaimed:

"He's bleeding!"

"What?!" Clyde exclaimed as everybody surrounded the boy. "What do you mean he's bleeding?!"

The girls moved Lincoln's head up, revealing his nose was bleeding, and mouth ran down from both edges of his mouth.

And in Lincoln's mindscape, the fight wasn't getting any more lenient, as Sincoln and Lincoln exchanged a couple of fists and kicks, though Sincoln's hits were a bit harder.

Eventually, Sincoln pinned Lincoln against a wall and started strangling him, sporting a satisfactory smile as Lincoln spotted a lever...

And he got an idea.

Lincoln ripped off a lever from the machine, then swung it right into Sincoln's face, sending him flying into some loose cables, electrocuting him in the process.

"Wait, Junior, wait!" Sincoln begged as Lincoln walked towards him. "Think about this: You're a kind, well-meaning kid, right?"

Lincoln stopped on his tracks and nodded

Sincoln smiled. "And the last thing you want is to be the same as me, right?"

Lincoln narrowed his eyes and nodded once more.

"W-Well, what you're doing now, is something I would do!" Sincoln started walking towards the boy. "And if you keep beating me up, you'll truly be no different than me."

Lincoln avoided eye contact as Sincoln extended his hand and said:

"Now, do us both a favor, and hand over the lever. Don't do what I'd do."

The boy remained silent for a moment, until he took a deep breath and asked:

"There's one major difference between you and me, Sincoln. Do you know what that is?"

The prototype fell silent, and before he could answer, Lincoln smacked him with the lever again, sending him crashing into a wall as Lincoln proclaimed:

"I'm getting violent against someone who deserves it instead of innocent people, like all of the prototypes!"

"All of them? Even those damn living corpses that claim to be my sisters?!" Sincoln asked as he stood up. "Don't let yourself be fooled, Junior!"

The boy wasn't amused. "Says the guy who tried to trick me a second ago!"

Lincoln swung the lever again, but Sincoln caught it with his bare hands and exclaimed:

"I'm serious! The psychopaths that look like my sisters are nothing more than carcasses given life by a greater evil!"

Sincoln slowly started overpowering Lincoln as he added:

"I mean, think about it: For you to exist, I have to remain in an existential limbo! But your sisters, they exist, and yet their prototypes still walk around? If they really were their prototypes, they would be nothing but ageless shells!"

Lincoln, remembering who he was talking with, kicked Sincoln in the gut and started beating him up with the lever, until he crashed on the wall and shivered, too injured to stand up again.

"Fine, don't believe me! Keep beating me up!" Sincoln spat. "It's pointless! As long as you exist, I will exist! As long as we share a body, you'll never be able to get rid of me!"

"I will keep what you said in mind, but until then, I refuse to trust you, Sincoln," Lincoln bluntly replied. "I just can't after what you've done."

Lincoln swung the lever down on Sincoln's skull, not only knocking the boy out, but snapping the weapon in half, both halves making a loud, metallic sound as Lincoln caught his breath and walked to the consciousness machine.

And as soon as he connected himself to it, he woke up in the real world, surrounded by her sisters and friends while Luan shook him.

"Lincoln, please tell us you're okay!" Luan pleaded. "We already lost Lucy, we can't lose you too!"

Lincoln felt a chill go down his spine. "We lost who?"

Realizing what she said, Luan covered her mouth and lowered her head as Haiku grabbed Lincoln's arm and led him to Lucy's untouched, motionless body, which was being seen by both Kiki and Margo.

The boy threw a conflicted look at Margo, who somberly explained:

"We were about to be crushed by the monster, I pushed Kiki away, but before I could do anything else, Lucy pushed me away as well, and..."

Margo fell silent, allowing Lincoln to come a bit closer to his gothic sister's body, fall on his knees, and gently caress her cheek before he hugged, shedding a tear as everybody reunited with him.

And then, he heard something:

 _*Ba-dump*... *Ba-dump*_

The boy wiped his tears and heard closely.

 _*Ba-dump*... *Ba-dump*_

"Guys, can I ask you something?"

Everybody nodded silently, and the boy asked:

"If Lucy's dead, then how come I can hear a heartbeat?"

Then, the boy heard the goth girl groaning, and he backed away as Lucy got up and put her hand on her face.

"Ugh," she groaned. "My head hurts."

"Lucy!"

Everybody surrounded the girl as she stood up and parted her bang, revealing her left eye had black sclera, and a tombstone-shaped pupil.

"What happened?" Lucy asked. "Last thing I remember was the hydra tumbling down on top of me and then... Nothing."

Upon saying that, Lucy remembered something. "Where's the hydra?!"

"Oh, Leni's wrecking it without mercy," Luna casually answered.

Lincoln's eyes widened in shock. "What?!"

 _ **Meanwhile, back at Atlantis...**_

Lynn and Paige walked towards the shield surrounding the city, with the athlete looking rather curious.

"Okay, all we need to do is figure out a way to break this shield," Lynn said. "But how do we do that?"

Paige looked up at the sky, and seeing a heart-shaped hole in a cloud, she stated:

"We wait."

Lynn raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"We wait," Paige repeated. "Clearly, if we try anything on our own, we might get crystallized and shattered, so the best thing we can do is wait until the help I called arrives."

Lynn looked at the sky as well, and she was shocked to see a heart-shaped hole in the cloud, where a cloaked figure was sent flying towards the shield.

The figure then kicked the shield as soon as she was close enough, and the impact left cracks that eventually formed a heart, before expanding to cover the whole shield. The figure jumped out of the way, and the shield was shattered into millions of pieces as Proto-Lola and Proto-Lana quickly noticed.

"What?! Impossible!" Proto-Lola exclaimed. "What could manage to destroy my shield without being crystallized?!"

"Perhaps It's not a what that destroyed the shield," Proto-Lana argued, as she sternly looked Skippy and Claire reuniting, the former turning into a giant eagle before flying off the place with the girl and Watterson. "But a who?"

It took Proto-Lola a few seconds to process the suggestion, upon which she clenched her fists and growled, "Cristina!"

Lala returned to the battlefield afterwards, getting the prototypes' attention.

"How long are you going to hide behind that shell, Hayyel!?" Proto-Lana snapped. "I thought your lack of individuality was pitiful, but the fact you had to give it up and fuse with Jophiel to stand a chance against us is pitiful!"

"Well, I find your lack of cooperation embarrassing," Lala scoffed back. "I mean, you're fighting a fusion that's beating both of you to the ground, and yet you insist in fighting on your own."

"Fighting together is as arbitrary as the concept of fusion itself!" Proto-Lola proclaimed. "I mean, be honest, if you weren't fused right now, you would stand no chance against us!"

The glowing figures grabbed a microphone and made Lala chuckle:

"Is that what you think?"

Proto-Lola raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask? It's obvious you're too hopelessly outmatched as individuals!"

"What are you doing?!" Lana asked the figures. "Lala's literally the only thing that's been able to hurt both of them!"

"The progenitors believe that just because they hold forgotten powers that they're invincible," one of the figures said. "But the power they hold is just a fake. For you hold the real power."

"We four hold the real power," the other figure said.

"What are you talking about!?" Lola snapped, slamming her fists against her control panel. "Stop being vague and give us a straight answer!"

The figures exchanged looks, and realizing they had no choice left, they unveiled their true forms:

The pink figure looked like Lola, but with a layered dress and her hair tied in a ponytail.

The blue figure looked like Lana, but with a red undershirt.

And just as the twins wondered what this meant, they shook hands with the figures, covering the entire mindscape in light.

Back outside, Lala herself was surrounded by light as she levitated up, and had both pink and blue electricity surge around her.

And Carol, who was still at the sidelines, frowned with worry.

"What's going on with Lala? She should be able to remain stable for a little while longer," she said to herself, only to come to a horrible conclusion. "Don't tell me... are they planning to defuse?!"

And meanwhile with Paige and Lynn, the latter spread out her fire wings when she noticed Lala's situation.

"Hey, something seems to be happening to Lala!" Lynn remarked as she turned to face the fading fusion. "I need to go help them-!"

Paige then grabbed Lynn's hand and held her tightly as she growled:

"There's nothing we can do now, Lynn! It's a fight between those two and the progenitors!"

"Are you crazy!?" Lynn snapped. "I can't just abandon my sisters right now!"

Paige narrowed her eyes. "If that were true, you wouldn't have abandoned your siblings down there, would you?"

Stunned by this statement, Lynn fell silent as Paige made her jump off the city, then fly towards the shore.

Finally, an annoyed Leia sat among the debris, upset that Claire had gotten away. "Stupid fake champion, she didn't even tell me where Lizy was!"

Then, she spotted Lala giving off strange energy. "Huh? What's going on?"

Back with Lala, the entity split back into her components, Lola and Lana, but whatever hope the progenitors had of overpowering the sisters quickly vanished when the light surrounding them vanished, revealing they looked a bit different:

Lola's long hair was tied in a pair of braids, her sash had been repurposed into a scarf, and her dress had layers as well. Her eyes had pink sclera, and pupils shaped like a teardrop diamond. Also, she had a diamond on her forehead, and her left arm had returned.

As for Lana, she had a red-light green stripped shirt, her hair was loose, and her hair was slightly tilted to her right. She had blue sclera, and lizard-like pupils. Like with Lola, her right arm had returned.

Carol was amazed and relieved at the forms. "They achieved them..."

Leia, on the other hand, was terrified. "The successors' true form..."

Lana then suddenly leaped to her counterpart, and glared at her face-to-face before grabbing her and pushing her down through the ground, with Proto-Lola barely being able to register what happened before Lola punched her right in the forehead, sending her crashing into some rubble.

And just as the prototype got up, Lola leaped towards her and her forehead diamond glew as she said:

"Diamond Flash."

The diamond released an intense light, blinding Proto-Lola and causing her to wobble around the arena as Lola generated a large crystal, again from her forehead, and wrapped it in her sash before saying:

"Diamond Rain."

With a single squeeze, the sash shattered the crystal to pieces which were sent raining down on Proto-Lola, who barely got time to react.

Once she regained her vision, Proto-Lola aimed her palm at Lola, covered it in diamonds and shouted:

"Diamond Machine Gun!"

The arm shot several gem-shaped pellets at Lola, who raised her arm slightly as she said:

"Diamond Shield."

A large diamond sprouted from the ground and blocked the pellets, prompting Proto-Lola to ditch the attack and just rush towards the girl, who smiled and said:

"Diamond Reflection."

A crystal copy of Proto-Lola came out of the diamond and rushed to her, shattering upon contact and stunning the prototype long enough for Lola to wrap her leg with her sash and lift her up before saying:

"Diamond Stalactites."

A bunch of sharp crystals burst from the ground, and Lola sent the prototype crashing down them, piercing her arms, legs, and stomach.

However, by the end of that, Proto-Lola simply powered up, destroying the crystals and unleashing an aura that sent shock waves across the arena... who failed to get a reaction from Lola.

"Hack!" the prototype diva snapped. "You're a hack! A lie! A living piece of bullshit!"

Lola didn't respond.

"Last time we fought, you didn't even know you could do more than the Diamond Flash!" Proto-Lola growled. "How can you do the full moveset now!?"

Lola smiled and boasted:

"Because unlike you, I'm not stuck in an existential limbo. I grow. I learn, from my mistakes or otherwise. And most importantly, I'm the one that holds the real power left behind by Progenitor Lola."

Lola clutched her stomach.

"And though I may be using this power now to reach my full capacity, I won't abuse it. I will train, I will study, I will learn my full capabilities without abusing this power! And I won't stop until I've learned everything!"

Lola gave Proto-Lola the pointer finger.

"Because that's my duty as Jophiel! Rightful heir of the Lola caste!"

Proto-Lola gritted her teeth and was surrounded by a pink aura, her hair growing longer as she gained a crystal on her forehead, her legs turned into hind legs, and she grew a pair of animalistic ears, stating:

"You're a mistake! An accident! Living proof of Lincoln's insulting pride and ego! A being like that doesn't deserve to inherit my caste!"

Proto-Lola's eyes started glowing.

"All you deserve is to die!"

Proto-Lola and Lola both shot pink eye beams at each other, with the beams clashing right in the middle as a diamond shape was formed underneath them.

However, after a while, Lola started walking forward, pushing Proto-Lola back as the progenitor's beam was slowly overpowered.

"No, no! This can't be!" Proto-Lola whined as Lola's beam got closer and closer. "I'm the Queen of Diamonds! I'm the most brilliant diamond in the Loudverse! I'm-!"

However, Proto-Lola could only scream as Lola won the struggle and her eye beam slowly crystallized the progenitor into a pose filled with despair and rage, taking only a couple seconds before the prototype turned into a statue.

Without hesitation, Lola wrapped her crystallized counterpart with her sash, then spun it around before launching her into the ground, shattering her into a million pieces.

And, as if to make it clear she really was dead, a pitch black soul-spirit-thing came out of the shadows and morphed into a humanoid Lola-like shape, before flying off into the distance.

"You're history," Lola stated as she turned back to her base form.

At this sight, Leia fell to her knees and uttered, "Mother Lola's dead..."

Then, she activated her earpiece and told the rest of the invaders:

"Mother Lola's dead!"

Panic soon enveloped the whole armada as they screamed "retreat!" and flew towards the diamond-shaped hole in the sky.

"Yeah, and don't come back!" Mrs. DiMartino shouted at the invaders. "They'll leave us for a while now, right?"

Mrs. Johnson shook her head. "I hope so, DiMartino, I hope so."

Meanwhile, back inside the diamond, the building started to crack as both Penelope and Lindsey heard the invaders running away in a panic.

"You hear that?" Penelope asked, with a slight satisfaction in her tone. "That's the sound of what you thought was an invincible entity being shattered to pieces, and her forces running away for safety."

Lindsey put a hand on her cheek and shook her head, unable to believe the prototype was really taken care of.

"Yup, she's a goner," Penelope extended her hand towards the girl. "You're no longer bound to this place. So come on, let's get out of here."

Lindsey glanced at the hand, then nodded and smiled as she stood up, then narrowed her eyes with determination as she morphed her arm into a crystal drill, stating:

"Give me a second, and I'll make us an exit."

 _ **Meanwhile, at the deeper layers of Atlantis...**_

Lana and Proto-Lana crashed through the rocky, pink-tinted surface and crashed hard enough to leave a crater, with Lana on top of Proto-Lana. The prototype then kicked her successor off her hard enough to send her flying, which gave Lana the chance to morph her arms into wings, which she used to fly towards the prototype.

"H-How?!" Proto-Lana blurted. "I never even once showed that to you!"

Lana threw some feathers at Proto-Lana, who surrounded herself in scales before the feathers hit the ground and exploded, with the explosion covering her entirely.

And then, Proto-Lana leaped out of the explosion, claws and fangs bared, and Lana took the chance to fly to her before morphing her wing-arms back into normal arms, then turning her fingernails into claws before slashing at her counterpart.

The beast queens spent some time clawing and slashing at each other, moving all around in mid-air until Proto-Lana swung her tail at Lana, sending her crashing down a deeper layer. This one was as pink as the last one, but there was a navy blue glow coming from the ground.

Then, before she could wonder what that meant, Proto-Lana burst from the hole and tried sending her another layer down, only for Lana to kick her up, jump to her side, then drive her down the floor with her bare hands, before grabbing her tail and kicking her straight into a wall, ripping off her tail in the process.

When Lana tried to celebrate, though, the tail started flailing wildly, forcing the girl to drop it in disgust.

And then, she turned around and saw the source of the navy blue glow: A large, glowing sphere, which had the top of the lower half of the diamond crack against it.

"What is that thing?" Lana wondered out loud.

"The core of Atlantis."

Lana turned around and saw Proto-Lana getting up and walking towards her.

"The thing that keeps Atlantis powered up, and the thing that will end this fight once and for all."

Lana narrowed her eyes, and raised her hand, summoning a trident out of thin air, with the prototype smirking at the weapon.

 _ **Back at the Beach...**_

Leni screamed at the top of her lungs as she threw the hydra at the defenseless Atlantis, and as soon as it crashed, it exploded with enough force to send the lost city off towards some mountains nearby; the city crashing on top of them in the process.

And as the ground shook from the impact and nearly everybody lost their balance, Leni stood still as she glared at Sam, then threw the "You're next" gesture at her, with Sam gulping down her hopes and dreams as Leni turned to look at the city.

 _ **Back at the Core of Atlantis...**_

Proto-Lana and Lana continued to stare at each other, the former looking ready to lunge at her counterpart at any moment.

"Just because you have my power, doesn't mean you can control it!" Proto-Lana hissed. "I spent eons perfecting my techniques, while you just got them five seconds ago!"

Lana materialized a trident as Proto-Lana growled:

"Do you really think you can master those techniques just as quickly?"

"No," Lana stated, and smugly smiled. "But I don't need to."

Proto-Lana's aura glew brigter as she ran after the girl, screaming at the top of her lungs:

"You will wipe that smile off your face, and submit to my authority!"

However, as soon as Proto-Lana lunged at Lana, the angelic plumber threw her trident at her, sending her flying into the core of Atlantis, trapping her there in the process.

And as Proto-Lana tried to free herself, Lana flew away.

"Where are you going, Hayyel!?" the prototype yelled. "Come and face me, you disgusting coward of a lion!"

However, Proto-Lana soon ate her words when she heard something cracking, and she looked at the core to see it was getting closer and closer to shattering to pieces.

Not only that, but as the core was seconds away from exploding, a small child-like shadowy figure appeared inside, glaring at the prototype.

Proto-Lana's last words?:

"Oh shi-!"

The core burst, with Lana just barely flying out of the way and getting Carol to teleport her and Lola out of the city, to the beach with their family, before fire erupted all across the center of the city, ending with a blast that split Atlantis in half, with one half remaining on the mountains while the other half crashed in the ocean.

Barely a few minutes after this crash, Leni screamed once again before she ran towards Sam with murderous intent.

Ronnie Anne aimed her palm at Leni and shot the paralyzing lighting strike at her. However, Leni literally rushed through it and smacked the girl away into the ocean.

"It didn't work?!" she exclaimed as she swam back to the shore.

Leni cracked her knuckles and lunged at Sam, ready to punch her face with all her might. However, as Sam created a shield with her lavender-light blue-purple energy, Leni found herself paralyzed by the same shock technique.

Only this time, the shock came from Lori, who narrowed her eyes as she effortlessly kept her sister in place.

"Everybody keep your distance!" Lori ordered. "As long as Leni remains in this form, she's a danger to everybody!"

"And how do we get her back to normal?!" Lynn asked.

Lori turned to Carol and stated, as she threw Leni's earrings at her, "Carol, put these on Leni's ears!"

Carol nodded, and using her portal powers, she got close enough to place both earrings on Leni, turning her back to normal.

With that done, Lori released Leni, causing her to fall face-first on the sand.

"Leni, are you okay?!" Lori asked as everybody, including Sam, ran to check up on the girl. "Are you calm now?"

"Ugh, my head..." Leni groaned as she got up. "What happened?"

Then, Lori turned to Chandler and barked, "Kid, come with me so we can check if there are any survivors in Atlantis!"

Chandler nodded, and without hesitation, both the young woman and redheaded kid called some clouds, and rode them to the destroyed city, while everybody else ran up to Leni's side.

"Leni, are you okay?" Luan asked with worry, clutching her chest as she added, "And please say you are, Lucy and Lincoln nearly gave me a heart attack."

Leni nodded as she stood up. "I'm fine. I just, like, want to know what happened."

"You grabbed the hydra by it's tail and started beating it up like a mad woman!" Luna stated. "Then, when it was gonna self destruct, you threw it at that large city and it exploded, cracking the place in half!"

"But it seems that whatever struck it is still intact," Carol said, pointing at the pink diamond floating in the ocean. "It's floating in the ocean without doing anything, but it's still there."

"Okay, good to know," Leni slowly turned to Sam. "Now..."

Without warning, the fashionista pinned Sam to the ground and started strangling her, with the rest of the team trying to separate them before a lighting bolt did the trick.

The bolt came from Lori's cloud, as she and Chandler both returned to the shore, the latter holding Lindsey while the former held Penelope.

"Seriously, Leni!?" Lori snapped as she jumped off the cloud. "I literally can't leave you alone for a minute post-velvet mode without you taking your anger out on someone?!"

"But she, like, totes deserves it!" Leni yelled, giving Sam the pointer finger. "She knew what could happen, and she still decided to do her plan anyway!"

Luna promptly walked to Leni's side. "Now, Leni, we don't know that-"

This got the rocker a blatant bitch slap from the ditzy fashionista.

"Why, Luna?! Why are you, like, playing devil's advocate?!" Leni snapped. "Lucy's dead because of her!"

"B-But I'm okay now!" Lucy exclaimed, getting everybody's attention. "See? I'm alive!"

"If only it was as simple as that," Leni said, shaking her head before turning back to Luna. "Seriously Lunie, why are you defending your girlfriend when she got one of our sisters killed?!"

"Sam couldn't have known that Lucy would die!" Luna argued. "And besides, you and Lori helped her build the dang stage, too!"

"Okay, let's stop right there," Lori stated, separating the sisters. "Listen, I'm sure there's somebody to blame here, but we shouldn't focus on that. We literally just survived a progenitor attack! We should be enjoying the rest of the beach day while we still can!"

"How?!" Luan asked. "We now know that the progenitors will attack us even when we're on vacation!"

Lori rubbed her temples. "I... I literally don't know. It's just... The purpose of this trip was to relax. I was just hoping that, now that both Proto-Lola and Proto-Lana have been taken care of, we could..."

Lori covered her face with her hands and took a deep breath before stating:

"Okay, I think we can call it a day. We should better go back home now."

And with an unanimous nod of agreement, everybody prepared to leave the beach, ready to forget the stressful day.

 ** _Later, at the Loud House..._**

The whole family had returned, except the parents, and they were getting ready to wind down after the hectic beach day they just had. With both Proto-Lola and Proto-Lana apparently out of the picture, they could legitimately, finally relax for once. This included the twins, who were winding down at their bedroom.

Oddly enough, however, the arms they healed while in their powered up state went back to becoming stubs.

"I find it a little upsetting that we're back to square one with stubs instead of arms," Lola sighed before chirping up. "But man, wasn't that whole beach day crazy?!"

"Yeah, but let's be honest here, what happened over there raised so many questions," Lana chuckled. "We're gonna have to pester Carol for answers tomorrow."

"Why wait until tomorrow?" Lola asked with a shrug. "I'll go find Carol so we can pester her right now!"

"Wait!" was all Lana could exclaim before Lola bolted out of the room, causing the girl to laugh as she waved her hand and said, "Eh, whatever."

And then, a familiar barking noise caught the tomboy's attention, reminding her of a certain group that ran up to her afterwards, the family pets: Charles, Geo, Waltz, and Cliff.

"Oh my goodness, I completely forgot about you guys!" Lana chirped as she was tackled by Charles, who then started licking her cheek. "Hi there! Did you miss us?"

Charles barked, and somehow, Lana managed to interpret it as: "We sure did!"

"Aw, we missed you too," Lana replied, failing to catch the statement as she put the dog down. "Now, let me tell you, the beach was..."

And then, Lana realized something:

"W-Wait, did you... Say something?"

Charles barked again while waggling his tail, which Lana interpreted as: "I barked happily. Does that count?"

Waltz chirped, which Lana interpreted as: "Of course it doesn't, you dumb dog! She means as in, did you actually say words!"

Cliff purred, and the interpretation was: "Calm down, Waltz, It's not Charles' fault that he thinks barking counts as talking."

Geo did hamster noises, cue interpretation: "Yeah, I mean, you chirp all the time, and to humans, that doesn't count as talking."

Waltz chirped angrily at the hamster. "At least birds can imitiate human speech! You know about parrots!?"

Charles raised an eyebrow and barked, "But you're not a parrot."

The argument between the animals stopped when the heard Lana laughing, and as soon as they turned around, they saw the girl shedding tears with a wide smile as she said:

"I can understand you..."

The animals' eyes widened as the tomboy repeated, with joyful bliss:

"I can understand you!"

The animals cheered up and hugged the plumber as she laughed a bit more, returning the hug as her laughter died down, and she simply smiled and enjoyed the moment. And as she did this, a pair of figures watched her with proud smiles on their faces.

No, not Carol and Lola, but Lori and Leni, who exchanged pleased looks and nodded before they closed the door, leaving the girl and the pets alone.

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview...**

"Hi everybody, Lisa here."

The first scene showed Clyde reading a manga when Ronnie Anne arrived at his room. They then talk for a bit as Lisa spoke:

"It has come to my attention that I and Lily will enter the battlefield sooner or later, no matter what we do."

Then, in another scene, Lincoln arrived at the Johnson's house, with him knocking the door, which was answered by Penelope. Simply put, she wasn't pleased to see him.

"So, I'm going to throw away my scientific skepticism, and say something I never thought I would."

Then, a set of images were shown: Clyde and Penelope finding a girl that looked like a mix between the two of them, that same girl meeting two shadowy figures with a portal behind them, and the girl hugging Clyde and Penelope, who looked rather happy.

"Carol, send me and Lily to another dimension!"

The scene changed to show Clyde and Ronnie Anne cosplaying and fighting against eachother, before speaking to eachother.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality..."

The scene changed, showing a shadowy figure with orange eyes, speaking slowly.

"Beyond Our World! My First Venture Into Another Dimension!"

Back in reality, Lincoln looked disturbed while Penelope, shedding tears, snapped at him.

"Don't miss it, please."

The final scene showed Carol arriving at the laboratory, only to find a sad Lisa inside...


	28. Two Worlds

**Surprise!**

 **I know I said I was gonna go on hiatus, but this chapter was already done, and I figured hey, the little something special I got planned won't be available for a while, and it needs some promotion! Might as well post one more chapter that has such promotion before going silent.**

 **For those who don't get it, I'm going to be writing a special Chains of Reality story for December, one that will serve as a complete conclusion to Lola and Lana's journey into godhood. They'll still have many things to overcome, Claire and Lindsey Sweetwater are still around after all, but in terms of godhood, they'll finish the journey. And no, them reaching godhood doesn't mean they're going to be capable of fighting the progenitors on their own: They'll just have a lower chance of getting their butts kicked.**

 **I got the inspiration to do the special that will be foreshadowed at the end of this story, wow that's a mouthful, shortly after finishing Proto-Lana's arc, and seeing as I couldn't put this story anywhere else as the mini-arc was already taken, It's going to become it's own story! Yay!**

 **But first, let's answer some reviews!:**

 **1) Nobody245:**

 *** Yup, she's a complete goner.**

 *** If you mean the next arc, that's Proto-Lucy's arc so no, they won't be the main antagonists over there. They will be built up, and so will the other proto-sisters to an extent, but they're not the antagonists.**

 *** Well, on the one hand, the proto-sisters are so hands off that plan probably didn't cross their minds, and even if they did, they'd probably ditch it because remember, in their eyes, the Neo Sisters are proof of Lincoln's depravity. Acting like one of them would be blasphemous in their eyes.**

 **And besides, there already _is_ a progenitor among the Loud children. But I'm not telling you who it is!**

 **2) Hatoralo:**

 *** Getting a bit ahead of ourselves, are we?**

 *** Oh right, I think I was gonna add that story too, but I forgot the name. Thanks for reminding me. Now we know 2 people who've portrayed him sympathetically. XD**

 **3) Observant Guest: I see. Well, that's great to know. :)**

 *** Then let me say you got a good taste in soundtrack. I haven't heard all of the soundtack, and I may not considering how much stuff I have to write, but what I did hear was pretty good.**

 *** I'm sure the reviewer meant that the Proto-Lola Arc reminded them of the Zamasu/Goku Black arc. The arc after that couldn't be more different, it involves a divine deity trying to kill mortals because they believe the're flawed and deserve to die... Wait...**

 ***From what I read, James also voiced Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Brainiac in Smallville, and several other roles.**

 *** Fusion, the one Lola and Lana used anyway, is more like a mix between the Potara fusion (Blended outfits) and Fusion Dance (it requires contact between the fusees, and a similar height. Having similar powers aren't explicitly needed, but that helps). And don't worry, Lala won't be the only fusion featured in the story. ;)**

 *** Now that I think about it, Velvet Mode really is like the Legendary Super Saiyan Berserk from Dragon Ball. How didn't I notice that until now?!**

 *** Mysteries for the win!**

 *** Is that what you got? I was thinking more along the lines of the Proto-Twins thinking the cloaked figure was _related_ to Cristina, not actually her. And yeah, Lincoln's getting visions, Ronnie Anne's getting visions, who'll get visions next? Clyde?**

 *** Another great soundtrack, I see.**

 *** Now, of all the crazy, balls-to-the-wall craziness in the previous chapter, which one was your favorite?**

 *** Also, how was the "Sherlock Bobby" bit at the beginning?**

 *** Finally, I apologize that I kinda take back my word and post a chapter, technically undoing the hiatus, but don't worry, this was just added to bring a bit more closure to the arc/kinda-sorta promote the special later this December. Now begins the hiatus, for real. :D**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 28: Beyond Our World! My First Venture Into Another Dimension!**

* * *

 _ **McBride**_ _ **Residence, Clyde's Bedroom...**_

The boy was resting on his bed, reading a manga in the Ace Savvy series when he heard somebody knock the door.

Figuring it was just his parents, he rolled his eyes and said, "Come in!"

The door was opened and, to his surprise, Clyde saw Ronnie Anne coming inside, waving hello in a slightly awkward manner.

"Ronnie Anne?" Clyde asked. "What are you doing here?"

"L... Lincoln, suggested I to pay you a visit... to try and keep working on our relationship," Ronnie Anne answered, folding her arms. "And since you visiting my house is obviously a bad idea, I decided to give it a shot."

Clyde raised an eyebrow. "How did you get past my parents?"

"I didn't, the door was locked, and nobody was answering, so I broke through the window," Ronnie Anne shrugged. "When I got inside I looked for your parents, but I didn't find anybody here."

"Huh, that's weird," Clyde checked his alarm clock. "They told me they'd be at a business meeting, but they're usually back at this hour. I wonder what happened."

"Probably got longer work hours than they expected, happens to my Mom all the time," Ronnie Anne walked to Clyde's side and sat on his bed. "So, what should we do to try strengthen our bond, or make one in the first place?"

Clyde eyed his room for a moment, then leaned towards a pile of manga and grabbed a random one.

"How about we read some manga?" the boy suggested. "It's like a comic, only you read from right to left instead of left to right."

"Sounds confusing, but okay," Ronnie Anne grabbed the manga and started reading it. "I'll warn you, however, that I have a very peculiar taste in comics-"

"Manga," Clyde corrected.

"Yeah, that," Ronnie Anne went back to her manga. "So it might take a while before I find something I like."

Clyde smiled and began reading a manga himself as he answered:

"It'll be worth a shot."

 ** _Meanwhile, at Lisa's Laboratory..._**

Carol went down the elevator, and began looking around the place as soon as she got out.

"Lisa, are you here?!" Carol called. "I came here to see how are you and Lily doing!"

Carol heard a groan nearby, and she followed it until she found the source: A melancholic Lisa resting her head on her desk.

"Lisa?" Carol asked, earning a nod from the toddler. "What's wrong?"

"Well, when you're staying at the sidelines while your family's risking their lives to save the world," Lisa took a deep breath. "Sometimes it makes you wonder, if there was something you could've done."

Lisa frowned. "Especially after experiencing an event that leaves you feeling defenseless, like Lana's counterpart's attack during the pageant."

Carol flinched. "She did what?!"

Lisa flinched as well, but didn't respond, instead opting to remain silent as Carol looked at her with a sympathetic look.

"Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I don't blame you over Proto-Lana's attack at your laboratory."

Lisa looked at Carol with concern. "I mean, there's no way you could've predicted that she would've attacked! The only way you could've known is if you could see the future!"

Carol looked elsewhere and scratched the back of her head. "And the only one of your sisters who could do that was neither there, nor could she do it at the moment."

Lisa looked at the mentor with a curious glance, but she quickly shook it off and continued to look at the ground.

"You know, ever since that tribulation, and the harsh scolding my older siblings gave me, I've been ruminating about something," Lisa said, getting Carol's attention. "They were right: Lily was exposed to a dangerous situation, and had it not been for Darcy, who knows what that prototype would've done to her."

Lisa folded her arms and sighed:

"So I told myself: You possess genius intelligence, but your misuse of said intelligence begs the question: Do you really deserve it? I mean, I can build all sorts of amazing machinery, surely I could build something to keep Lily safe..."

Lisa's glasses shined as she smiled and proudly stated:

"And, in fact, I did!"

A couple seconds later, Carol stood still and watched as Lily entered the room, piloting some mecha of sorts as Lisa proclaimed:

"I present you, the Lily Protector 1250! An advanced mecha controlled entirely by Lily's mind, it's equipped with reinforced armored plating, launchers, laser cannons, a jetpack, and so much more!"

"Uh huh," Carol said. "That thing's safe, right?"

"It's safer than leaving Lily alone and defenseless," Lisa shrugged. "Now, I need to ask you something-"

Carol waved her hand in a dismissive manner. "I won't tell anybody about this invention of yours, don't worry."

"No, that's not it, though I would appreciate it if you did that too," Lisa replied. "No, I need you to help me train my powers."

The cross-caste was confused. "What?"

"I've checked this scenario in some fictional works, the whole "everybody has powers" thing, and from my research, I've come to the conclusion that I'll eventually have to join my siblings in this odyssey," Lisa explained. "And I've missed not only the training sessions, but also the first two progenitor attacks!"

"You watched the tag team training session," Carol pointed out.

"But I didn't take part on it, which, all things considered, would've been better," Lisa argued. "So, if you can take me to a dimension where I can, as Lynn would say, get up to speed, I would appreciate it!"

"Alright then," Carol cracked her knuckles and turned to Lily. "So, what kind of dangers can that thing withstand?"

Lisa frowned. "What do you mean?"

Carol smiled sheepishly. "Well, if I'm going to take both of you with me, I need to take you to a dimension that both of you can survive-"

"Hold it, I never said Lily was coming along!" Lisa stood in front of Lily and spread her arms. "I'm going with you and Lily's staying here!"

Carol raised an eyebrow. "So she'll stay here all alone while you and I have an adventure?"

The toddler flinched and looked everywhere as Carol pointed out:

"Either Lily comes along, or she stays behind with nobody to watch her. Your call."

Lida turned to her toddler sister, who nodded in agreement, and the genius was left with no choice but to answer:

"We'll go. Both of us."

Carol smiled and opened a portal, which she, Lisa, and Lily jumped through soon afterwards.

 ** _Johnson Residence..._**

Lincoln knocked the door of Mrs. Johnson's house, before checking a piece of paper he took out of his pocket.

"I sure hope Penelope's willing to listen to me," Lincoln said to himself. "I need to convince her that Sincoln and I are different people."

Soon enough, Penelope opened the door, and she wasn't happy to see the boy.

"Hello, Penelope," Lincoln greeted. "Is Mrs. Johnson here?"

"She's busy working," Penelope sternly stated. "And before you say anything, no, I'm not in the mood for a younger sibling!"

It took Lincoln a moment to realize what she meant. "I'm not here to do that to your Mom! I just want to talk to you!"

Penelope raised an eyebrow.

"Look, Clyde told me to come here, okay?" Lincoln said as he walked inside and handed the paper to Penelope. "He said we should try talking with each other, and I wholeheartedly agree, because I don't want you to think the Lincoln you hate and the Lincoln I am right now are the same person!"

And then the boy felt a crumbled ball of paper hit his head, and what a surprise, it had been thrown by Penelope.

"Clyde told me about the plan already," she growled. "But don't think that just because your best friend said you're trustworthy, it means I'm going to let my guard down!"

"It's alright, I didn't expect you to do that anyway," Lincoln scratched the back of his head. "Believe me, after seeing the Lincoln you're talking about, I'd do the same thing as you."

Penelope raised an eyebrow. "Why are you talking as if there was two different Lincolns? It doesn't change what you did!"

Realizing something, Lincoln folded his arms. "Penelope, what did I do to make you angry at me?"

"Well, what else would you have done?" Penelope narrowed her eyes. "You gave the order to kill my child with Clyde, Calliope!"

The boy winced and took a step back as he tried to process the revelation.

"You seem to have trouble believing me, I'm not surprised," Penelope grabbed Lincoln's arm and dragged him with her. "Let's go to my room, I'll tell you the whole story there."

Once he realized what was going on, Lincoln shook his head and looked at the ground as he thought:

" _Sincoln... What the hell did you do?_ "

 _ **Back with Carol, Lisa, and Lily...**_

The team reached the dimension, but to their surprise, they landed in a Royal Woods that was not only partially destroyed, but seemingly empty and desolate.

"Carol, where are we?" Lisa asked as the girl summoned a screen from her birthmark and checked it. "And why does everything seem so... desolate?"

"According to the log files, this dimension is designated as the "Cyborg Overlord Dimension," Carol explained. "In this dimension, one of the Louds, it doesn't say who, went mad with power and conquered Royal Woods with an army of cyborgs, ageless half-human, half-machine entities."

As Carol continued her explanation, Lisa and Lily watched the scenery with horror.

"They reigned for about 5 years until a group of cyborgs rebelled, and they've been fighting a war with the overlord for a couple years now, hence the destruction around the area."

Then, Carol felt something pulling her skirt, and she turned around to see Lisa grabbing her skirt, looking at her with puppy dog eyes as she asked:

"Is my counterpart the evil cyborg overlord?"

Carol flinched and shut down the hologram as she hastily answered, "L-Let's not get ahead of ourselves! Any of the Louds could be the overlord! Lincoln, Lola, Lori, Leni-"

Lisa and Lily's shocked looks made Carol stop. "Yeah, I'll shut up now."

"Halt!"

The trio turned around and saw Darcy, but not just any Darcy: A cyborg Darcy with an arm cannon aimed straight at them.

Lisa didn't seem to notice, though. "An alternate Darcy! Sweet mother of Discov-!"

However, as soon as she moved, the cyborg Darcy opened fire on the team, forcing them to hide behind a rock.

"Lisa, you can't just talk to her like it was nothing!" Carol scolded the scientist. "She may look like Darcy, but she's an entirely different than the one you know!"

Lisa smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "I just wanted to ask her a couple questions!"

"There's a time and place for everything, Lisa!" Carol stated, with Lily nodding in agreement. "Now, stay here while I try to get her to calm down."

The girls nodded, and Carol left the hiding spot, trying to stay calm as the cyborg Darcy kept aiming her arm cannon at her, ready to shoot once again.

"Hi, I'm Carol, and the girls hiding nearby are Lisa and Lily," the girl explained. "We're interdimensional visitors from the Chains dimension."

"The "Chains" dimension?" the cyborg Darcy asked. "Isn't that the dimension where the omniversal threats known as the "Proto-Sisters" come from?"

"I'm afraid so," Carol shrugged. "We came here to try and both relax, and help some of the progenitors' successors discover their powers."

The cyborg Darcy lowered her arm cannon. "Well, you picked the worst possible dimension."

Carol rolled her eyes. "Yeah, tell me about it."

Cyborg Darcy shrugged. "If you insist."

Carol tried to correct herself, but it was too late: Cyborg Darcy started explaining word-for-word the history of her dimension, with Carol having no choice but to listen.

However, in the middle of that lecture, a giant mechanical creature approached the pair, it's shadow looming over them as Lisa and Lily noticed it and ran out of hiding.

"Darcy, watch out!" Lisa shouted as she ran towards the alternate version of her friend.

In the middle of her run, Lisa's feet suddenly shot up a green fire, allowing the girl to accelerate and hold onto the cyborg, just in time for her to unconsciously create a shield around them and block the creature's stomping foot.

Carol? She held the foot in place with her bare hands, until Lily's mechanical crib shot some missiles at the beast, successfully knocking it back.

By the time Lisa noticed what she was doing, she and the cyborg Darcy shared awkward looks before the scientist separated from her.

"Sorry, running and hugging you were unconscious decisions!" Lisa apologized, scratching the back of her head. "The shield wasn't intentional either."

And then, the scientist realized something. "Wait... Are these my powers?"

Then, the mechanical beast roared at the top of it's lungs, catching everybody's attention.

"Muse about that later!" Carol exclaimed, forming a pair of energy blades. "We have a giant robot beast to defeat!"

And so Lisa undid the shield and flew slightly up as she, the other Darcy, Lily, and Carol prepared to stand off against the cyber monster, who roared once more.

 ** _Back at the Johnson's House..._**

Lincoln sat on Penelope's bed as the girl searched through her closet, then returned with a picture frame.

"This is her," Penelope sniffed. "Calliope."

The redhead hesitantly gave the frame to Lincoln, and he took a good look at the girl called Calliope:

She had Clyde's dark skin and afro, and Penelope's hair color and missing teeth. She wore a green sweater, with a pink undershirt, black pants, and black mary shoes.

"Huh, she really does look like a mix of you and Clyde," Lincoln frowned. "What happened to her?"

Penelope sat next to Lincoln, and told the whole story:

 ** _How Clydelope Met Calliope..._**

"Shortly after we saw you during the egg school project, Clyde and I came across a girl."

The duo looked through a bush, and found Calliope there, bruised and bleeding.

"She was timid, scared, and looked like she had ran away from some sort of abusive household."

The kids helped her get up.

"Being good samaritans, we healed her back to health and made her feel comfortable, and in exchange, she told us who she was."

Calliope explained her story, though the only scene was of her being approached by two figures in front of a portal.

"She told us she was the daughter of a Clyde and Penelope from another dimension, a loving family who, thanks to the influence of you-know-who, were corrupted into becoming hedonistic jerks who didn't care about her. Until she came across two figures who gave her a chance for a better life."

Calliope was shown going down the swirly spiral that was the portal.

"She accepted without a second thought, and entered our dimension, revealing to us the existence of multiple dimensions in the process."

Then, it showed Clyde and Penelope hugging Calliope cheerfully.

"So, we decided to adopt her and try to replace the parents she, by all accounts, lost, and everything was good for a while..."

The scene went to black, then flashed red before revealing a red-tinted scene of Calliope laying on the floor, in a pool of her own blood.

"And then, you came along."

The scene looked up to reveal a shadowy figure above Calliope, holding some sort of weapon with a bloody, dripping tip.

"You sent one of your lackies to kill her while Clyde and I weren't in the house. And you know what she said?"

The figure smirked.

"Those children born without the lord and savior's permission must not be allowed to live."

 ** _Back at the Present..._**

"She was the single best thing life could ever give me and Clyde!" Penelope gritted her teeth. "And you took that away from us!"

"And I'll fix that!"

Penelope backed away at the statement, but she kept her cold composition. "You can't fix what you've done!"

"Maybe, but I can at least help you avenge your daughter," Lincoln got off the bed and saved his hands on his pockets. "Believe me, I'm not the Lincoln who wanted your daughter dead."

"I would never do that to you, and certainly not to Clyde," Lincoln narrowed his eyes. "So, I'm going to help you avenge her."

Penelope narrowed her eyes. "How!?"

Lincoln narrowed his eyes as well and clenched his fist, proclaiming:

"I'll find a way."

 ** _Back at the Cyborg Dimension..._**

The team continued fighting the giant robot beast: Carol shot several lighting bolts, Lily shot missiles, Cyborg Darcy shot buster blasts at it, and Lisa tried to figure out what else she could do to help.

Then, she noticed Cyborg Darcy's arm cannon, and getting an idea, she raised her arms and morphed them into arm cannons as well, which she used to aim and shoot at the beast, while also using her "rocket shoes" from earlier to fly all around it's field of view, distracting it until it took out it's robotic tail and swiped, sending the scientist crashing into Carol.

"Have we inflicted any damage on the mechanical monstrosity?!" Lisa asked.

"We weren't trying to damage it, we were trying to stun it," Cyborg Darcy pointed out. "The only way to hurt or destroy it is from the inside."

"Great, I'm getting deja vu," Carol sighed. "However, I do have an idea."

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "And what is that?"

Carol smiled, and moments later, she and Cyborg Darcy were ready to shoot Lily and Lisa at the beast, who looked at them with curiosity.

"Are you ready for this?" Carol asked with confidence.

"Not at all!" Lisa shouted, her determined smile unfaltering. "Now shoot me at it!"

Darcy and Carol nodded and promptly shot Lisa and Lily at the giant robot, with Lisa getting on top of Lily's machine as they crashed into the thing's stomach. But they didn't stop there, for Lily and Lisa started shooting holes all over the robot's body, until they flew out shooting from the inside, Lisa laughing in joy all the while.

Carol and the cyborg Darcy exchanged a high-five at the sight, and as soon as Lily and Lisa hit the ground, the robot beast let out an agonized scream before falling on the ground and exploding into bits.

"Whoo! We won!" Lisa chirped as everybody else celebrated. "If this is the kind of thing you guys have been dealing with then wow, I've been missing a lot!"

"Well, It's a bit more personal and dangerous than this, but yeah, this is the gist of it," Carol explained. "I wouldn't rush into it, though, join us when you've practiced your abilities a little bit more."

Lisa nodded. "Alright."

And then, the scientist was approached by Cyborg Darcy as Carol interacted with Lily.

"Hey, thanks for what you did today," Cyborg Darcy said. "I never would've thought a counterpart of Lisa would be at the battlefield. No offense."

"None taken. In fact, now that you mention her, how's my counterpart in this dimension?" Lisa asked, before clasping her hands. "Please tell me she's not the evil cyborg overlord!"

"Don't worry, she's not: She's the leader of the resistance against the overlord," Cyborg Darcy answered. "No, the evil cyborg overlord is-"

"Lisa, we gotta go!" Carol called as she opened a portal.

Lisa shook hands with the cyborg and said "Keep it for now, I'll come back later!" as she ran to the portal, then jumped through along with Carol and Lily.

One quick trip through the portal, everybody returned to Lisa's laboratory, with the scientist looking particularly dizzy.

"Man, that spiraling swirl can really disorient someone," Lisa said as she shook her head. "Remind me to close my eyes next time we jump through one of those."

Lily nodded and made her machine give the scientist a thumbs up.

And then, as the sisters dusted themselves, Carol clasped her hands and said:

"I'm so sorry, Lisa, I didn't mean to take you to such-"

"That was freaking phenomenal!" Lisa exclaimed in delight. "The giant robots! Sci-fi action! Me discovering powers!"

Realizing what she just said, Lisa paused, then gasped:

"I discovered my powers!"

Carol smiled as Lisa started giggling in joy.

"I can turn my arms into blasters!"

Lisa did just that as she exclaimed "Whabam!", and then she turned them back to normal.

"I can fly with my feet!"

Lisa's feet emitted a green flame that allowed her to fly up a bit as she shouted "Whim!", then the flames stopped and she landed safely on the ground.

"I can even generate a shield around me!"

Lisa spread her arms and shouted "Shablagoo!" as she was surrounded in a green shield, with dissipated soon after. With that done, Lily and Carol laughed, with the former clapping as well.

"The only thing that would've made that trip even better was if Lily had found her powers as well!" Lisa said as she walked to her baby sister. "Her caste is literally the only blank one left; Every other caste has some sort of record on their abilities, but not hers."

"Huh, interesting," Carol folded her arms and chuckled. "Though, It's not as interesting as a supposedly stoic scientist like you acting so cheerful."

"Can you blame me? I finally know what I can do!" Lisa turned her arms into blasters again. "Now anybody who wants to hurt Lily will suffer a blast to the face!"

Carol immediately ran to Lisa and held back the blasters as she said, "Whoa, not so fast! I helped you learn your powers so you could defend yourself, not so you could abuse them!"

Lisa threw an exasperated look at Carol as she added, "And besides, as the future matriarch of your caste, you need to be an example everybody looks up to: And using your powers however you wish without thinking of the consequences-"

"Is what Lincoln did back in the original reality, I presume?" Lisa asked as she turned her arms back to normal. "And the same thing the other progenitors would be doing, if they weren't solely focused on dealing with my sisters?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Carol released Lisa and brushed her hair. "Now, take a breather. That cyborg dimension was much more hectic than I expected, so it probably left you drained."

"Yeah, it was..." Lisa sighed. "And Carol?"

The teenager turned to face the little genius, who smiled and said:

"Thanks... For everything."

Carol nodded, said "no problem," and left through the elevator, Lisa and Lily waving goodbye as she left.

And once she was gone, Lisa said:

"Carol... she's quite interesting."

 ** _Back at Clyde's Bedroom..._**

The dark-skinned geek and Hispanic tomboy clashed their toy swords, the former cosplaying as One-Eyed Jack, and the latter as a female villain.

"This has gone for long enough!" Clyde exclaimed. "Tell me what you've done to Ace Savvy's wife, you vile demoness!"

"Nyehihihi! Never!" Ronnie Anne responded. "She is out of the picture, and I, Moneynatrix, will soon replace her as Ace Savvy's wife! Then, with access to all of his gadgets and weapons, I'll destroy him from the inside!"

"You vile fiend! You don't want to be his wife for love!" Clyde stated. "You just want to be that because of power!"

"Power is everything, Jackie!" Ronnie Anne smirked. "And soon, you will know what it feels like!"

"And cut!" Clyde said, ending the roleplay. "So, how do you feel?"

"Well, you were right, Nerd-O: It does feel pretty good to act like someone else every once in a while," Ronnie Anne threw the toy to the bed. "But, I do have to ask, would Moneynatrix really gain access to Ace Savvy's weaponry and gadgets if she became his wife?"

"She's a crazy woman, Ronnie Anne," Clyde shook his head. "Her plan alone should make that clear."

Ronnie Anne chuckled. "Yeah, hehe."

With that said, the kids went back to their regular clothes and continued reading manga together, with neither of them looking particularly upset at then sitting right next to eachother.

And noticing Ronnie Anne seemed calm, Clyde figured it was time for an apology that was long overdue.

"Hey, Ronnie Anne?" Clyde asked, getting the tomboy's attention. "I'm sorry about what I said about you not having a Dad around."

Ronnie Anne frowned as Clyde continued, "It was insensitive of my part, especially because I didn't know you that well."

Clyde thought about it. "And come to think of it, I don't think I do still."

"Well, since we're here together, how about we fix that?" Ronnie Anne suggested as she put her arms behind her head. "My three sizes are-"

Clyde quickly stopped the girl. "That's not the information I'm talking about!"

Ronnie Anne laughed out loud. "I know, I was just messing with you."

The duo laughed some more for a while, and once it died down, Ronnie Anne spoke seriously:

"I never got to meet my Dad. Mom says that he was closer than I thought, but she usually avoided the topic whenever I brought it up."

Feeling sympathy for the tomboy, and sharing her pain to an extent, Clyde took a deep breath and said:

"I don't know anything about my Mom."

Ronnie Anne flinched and turned to the guy.

"I heard one of my parents mention her, but that was it: A mention," he continued. "How she looks, how she acts, why she put me up for adoption... Everything draws a blank."

"Wait a minute, you're adopted?" Ronnie Anne inquired.

Clyde threw an "are you serious?" look at the girl.

"Sorry, I... Never thought about it until now," Ronnie Anne scratched the back of her head. "But, hey, looks like we do share one thing in common: We both have a parent that's missing for some reason."

Clyde chuckled a bit before he frowned and looked elsewhere.

"What's wrong?" Ronnie Anne asked. "Was it something I said?"

"No, I just... Remember how I lost someone else," Clyde sighed. "Someone I loved dearly. But you don't have to listen-"

"I want to listen."

Clyde turned to see the tomboy giving him a curious look, and feeling that he could confide one last secret to the girl, he said:

"Her name's Calliope..."

 ** _Back at the Loud House..._**

The twins sat on the couch while they were watching Rip Hardcore on television, looking slightly bored. The only thing noteworthy about the man the twins could notice was that he had some odd paw-shaped... Tattoo? on his chest.

"G'Day, mates! This is Rip Hardcore, Forest Survivalist!" Rip greeted to the camera before flexing his muscles. "I'm here on the Wildlands, searching for a black mamba that, according to ma sources, has become corrupted. And ya know how tough them black mambas are in the wild, so it'll be interesting to see what a corrupted one can offer."

Then, a large, slender figure loomed over Rip's frame, and as soon as he turned around and the camera focused, it revealed that the shadow belonged to the corrupted black mamba, which had the lower body of a serpent, but the upper body of a human, with the head of a frog. For some reason.

"Well, looks like we found it!" Rip stated with confidence before cracking his knuckles. "Let's catch it!"

"You know, I never noticed until now, but I think that thing Rip has on his chest is his birthmark," Lana remarked, pointing at the TV. "And from the looks of it, he belongs to my caste."

"And you noticed just now?" Lola asked. "I mean the birthmark on his chest, not that he's from your caste."

"Oh no, I saw it a long time ago, but I thought it was some weird tattoo he had," Lana shrugged in response. "You know, to make himself look cooler?"

And as the twins continued watching the TV, Leni looked at them with a concerned look. "I'm, like, not so sure about-"

Leni put a hand on her head and groaned as she felt a slight headache and a familiar voice said:

" _Lola and Lana are gone. It's now their descendants problem to fix their mistakes._ "

"I know, but, like, they're still exhausted from the thing at the beach," Leni argued with a nervous smile. "Couldn't you, like, wait a little longer before sending them off?"

The headache intensified as the voice growled:

" _It's either now or never, Marut. Now go._ "

The voice and headache vanished, and feeling too scared to disobey the voice's orders, she took a deep breath and promptly walked to the twins' side, getting their attention.

"Oh hi, Leni," Lola greeted. "Do you need something?"

The ditzy fashionista took another deep breath and clenched her fist, before giving the twins a serious look and stating:

"There's one last test thingie for you to take."

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Hello everybody, Luna here!"

Luna and Luan went to sleep on their beds, but after a little while, Luna woke up.

"Dude, for some reason, I just can't stay asleep."

The rocker tried to sleep again, but she couldn't do it. And then, she spotted Lori gesturing her to come with her.

"Hmm? What is it, Lori?"

The scene changed to show Lori and Luna walking across the streets, while talking with each other for a bit.

"Huh? You have something to tell me?"

Meanwhile, with Luan, the jokester woke up as well and, getting an idea, she got off her bed and started dialing a number on the room's phone.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Back with Luna and Lori, they end up meeting with Haiku, who runs off after sharing a little dialogue with the two.

"Sleepless in Royal Woods! So This Is A Night Life?"

Back with Luan, the call answered her dialing, but what she heard next seemingly startled and made her feel down.

"Don't miss it!"

The last scene showed Luna and Lori resting on the ground, looking at the stars before Luna asked something, prompting Lori to get up...


	29. Night Life

**Okay, I got to explain something, seeing how ImI updating out of nowhere. Especially to A Hopeful Observer, my most trustworthy partner in this behemoth of a story. You see, since Hope is going to be busy with school for a while, I thought that I could cut him some slack and re-read and edit a chapter on my own, which would also serve as the final chapter of the year.**

 **So, I'm not doing any of this with a bad intention. I hope I made that clear.**

 **As for why this chapter's so short, I wrote it on my phone's writing app, which doesn't tell me how many words I've written so far.**

 **But enough talk, let's reply to reviews!:**

 **1) Nobody245:**

 *** Did I say Proto-Sibling? 'Cause I'm pretty sure I said a progenitor.**

 *** Let me be blunt: The Proto-Sisters are supposed to be the very embodiments of what the sisters would be if they lacked their good qualities, and an exagerattion of their bad traits too. And plus, you can't exactly expect the Proto-Sisters being close to Proto-Lincoln/Sincoln to be a good thing: If anything, expect that the closer the sister was to Proto-Lincoln, the more she'll either A) Have been hurt by him, B) Been warped into a monster, or C) Both.**

 *** It's gonna take a while, indeed, especially with a little revelation later down the line... one that may make you wonder what the heck was up with Proto-Lincoln before... I nearly said too much.**

 **2) Hatoralo: Sam's in Luna's caste. And I'm not sure, they have homicidal prototypes to take care of first.**

 **3) ChernoMan (Chapter 27):**

 *** Fun fact: Lona and Lolana/Lanola were names I had for the fusion as well, but I wanted to try stay in the "four-letter name" motif the sisters seem to have.**

 *** Yeah, I'm excited to see how many brains are broken trying to figure that one out. XD**

 **4) ChernoMan (Chapter 28):**

 *** Fanatic Clyde, thank you very much.**

 *** There's another one coming up, yes.**

 *** On Calliope?**

 *** He's good. Although, considering the stuff Ronnie Anne's learning, he's probably worried she might end up discovering something... big...**

 *** Every Proto-Sister left some kind of business unfinished: The Proto-Sisters that we know now don't care enough to fix them, so it's up to the Neo-Sisters to do it.**

 **5) Observant Guest:**

 *** Just for fun, could you tell me what are those guesses you got?**

 *** Yeah, and to be fair, they're so egotistical and ignorant of their own ranks, they probably believe only Cristina herself would dare strike against them. Which, to be fair, isn't necessarily wrong...**

 *** Remember: For every answer found, another question pops up. Short answer: Let's hope they don't find too many answers.**

 *** Penelope's a rare case of being right, but being wrong at the same time, really. Let's just be happy she was willing to shed some light on the Calliope thing, that was really needed.**

 *** Yeah, Carol needs to hang around sisters that aren't Lana, Leni, or Lori. I wonder if I'll be able to have her hang out with Lucy?**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 29: Sleepless in Royal Woods! So This Is A Night Life?**

* * *

Nighttime had arrived at the city of Royal Woods, and the Loud household, home of the new gods of this dimension, was about to become just as quiet.

Most of the residents in the house were asleep, with Luna and Luan about to go to bed as well.

"Well, time to hit the hay," Luan said, only to groan when a pack of hay materialized in her bed. "Ugh, I wasn't even making a pun!"

Luna, meanwhile, took a deep, somber breath, which Luan noticed. "What's wrong?"

"I'm still processing everything that happened yesterday," Luna answered as she rubbed her temples. "The hydra attack, the invasion, Lucy's sort-of demise..."

Luan frowned. "Yeah, I know how you feel. I haven't felt this down since I did that prank on Maggie."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "What prank?"

Luan avoided eye contact and removed the hay from her bed as she said "Goodnight, Luna." with a yawn.

Shaking her head at her sister's dodging skills, Luna said "Good night, Luan." in response, and promptly tucked herself and fell asleep.

Luan followed soon after... But after about five minutes, Luna opened her eyes and got up.

"That's strange, I don't feel tired anymore," Luna looked up. "Hey, Luan-"

The loud snorts that ensued confirmed Luna's doubts: Luan really was fast asleep. And seeing that, she tried to fall asleep again.

Try as she might, however, the girl just couldn't manage to fall back asleep again.

"What the heck, dude?" Luna asked out loud.

"Something the matter?"

The rockstar turned around and saw Lori standing at the door, gesturing her to come with her.

"Why, dude?" Luna whispered.

"Because I need to talk with you," Lori whispered in response. "It's important."

Finding no reason to distrust her sister, Luna took a deep breath and went with her to the backyard, where she and Lori leaned against the tree while they looked at the night sky.

"So, I saw you waking up after you tried to go to sleep," Lori remarked. "Is there literally something keeping you awake?"

"No, I... don't feel that tired, for some reason," Luna answered, before thinking about it a bit further. "In fact, I don't feel tired at all."

"Really, now?" Lori asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's interesting, I figured it would take you a bit longer for that passive ability to activate."

Luna threw a confused look at her sister. "Passive ability?"

Lori rolled her eyes, then turned to a nearby bush. "You know, I'd love to tell you more about this ability."

The eldest sister walked to the bush, reached inside it, then pulled Sam out of it as she said:

"But we're literally being watched."

Sam chuckled nervously. "H-Hi, girls."

"Sam, what are you doing here?" Luna asked as the blonde rocker was dropped on the floor. "Shouldn't you be asleep at this hour?"

"Lamp, I'm offended by your statement! So much so, I may not call you by your name for a while!" Sam stated as she stood up, with Luna and Lori rolling their eyes at her words. "You should know most aspiring musicians need to learn how to stay awake for the whole day just in case their concerts take place at night!"

Luna hummed and scratched her chin. "Now that you mention it, Mick Swagger did have both day and night concerts..."

"That doesn't matter," Lori shot a glare at Sam. "Tell us what are you doing here before I literally kick you out."

"I just wanted to see if everybody was doing okay after the beach deal," Sam put her hands on her pockets. "Especially the little goth girl... What was her name?"

"Lucy," Luna quickly corrected. "Look, Sam, you don't have to be here: I'm not going to hold what happened there against you, but seriously, get out of here before-"

And then, the trio heard someone bark, and they turned around to see it was none other than Charles, who was also growling at Sam.

"Aw, you have a dog! Why didn't you tell me you had one of those?!" Sam chirped as she walked closer to Charles. "He's adorable!"

"I would be careful if I were you," Lori said as Sam walked closer to Charles. "If you scare him, he might bite you."

"It's alright, Luna's Older Sister," Sam sternly replied as she tried to pet the dog. "I'm sure this dog won't-"

Predictably, Charles bit Sam as soon as he got the chance, causing everybody to suddenly go silent.

Then, light blue, violet, and lavender energy surrounded Sam as her mouth started glowing, culminating in Sam looking at the sky as she screamed at the top of her lungs, shooting a purple beam from her mouth that pierced the skies. And the scream continued for a while, allowing Luna to watch in sheer shock... While Lori wasn't even fazed.

And mere seconds later, the girl laid on the ground, whimpering as she clutched her bit hand.

"Wow, that was something," Luna remarked, shivering from the scene as she slowly patted Charles. "Good thing I don't need to worry about Charles biting me, right?"

"I wouldn't be so trusting," Lori answered. "After all, Charles may be part of the family, but even he has his limits."

Luna paused, then continued petting. "Nah, he wouldn't bite me! He's got a heart of gold, just like Leni!"

Misjudging that as an insult, Charles bit Luna's hand even harder than he did with Sam. And like with Sam, the same energy started surrounding Luna, along with the small rocks nearby floating up as the ground shook.

"O-Ok, I'm fine now," Sam said as she stood up. "What did I miss?"

"Get down." a worried Lori ordered.

Sam raised an eyebrow, and as soon as Luna opened her mouth, Lori tackled Sam and pinned her to the ground, narrowly dodging the shockwaves sent from Luna's titanic screech, unleashing a purple beam as well.

But it didn't just pierce the heavens; The beam was so strong, a crater formed underneath Luna and the ground shook even more violently, all while both Sam and Lori watched in sheer horror.

By the end of it, Luna clutched her bitten hand and took several deep breaths.

"Note to self; Luna's a lot more badass than she looks," Sam remarked.

"Yeah, you better remember that," Lori stated. "Now get out of here."

Sam nodded and, without hesitation, ran away while Lori walked to her shivering sister.

"Did Sam leave?" Luna asked as Lori helped her get up.

"Yup," Lori answered.

Luna frowned. "How did she react?"

Lori looked at her sister and smiled sympathetically as she said, "Well, she was impressed, that much is true."

Luna took several deep breaths, prompting a sympathetic response from Lori as she said:

"Let's take a walk, and get your mind off of what just happened."

 _ **Meanwhile, back in Luna and Luan's bedroom...**_

The pun-loving Luan moved around her bed while groaning and clutching her chest, while sporting a look implying she was about to cry. She kept moving until she rolled off her bed, hitting the ground and waking her up in the process.

"I can't sleep," Luan sighed as she stood up and rubbed her head. "But why? My dreams weren't any different than usual..."

Then, the jokester got an idea and went to the room's phone. She marked a number, and waited for the other end to answer.

And as soon as it did, Luan smiled before they said:

"Hello, this is Magdalene Swagger's number. I'm currently unavailable, so please call later."

And then what the voice mail said next hit her right in the heart:

"Unless you're named Luan Loud, in which case, don't call me. Ever."

"Well, that's oddly specific," Luan remarked as the number hung up. "I mean, I know she's angry for what I did, but..."

The jokester fell silent, then looked at the ground as she thought about what to do next... Then narrowed her eyes with determination, and marked the number again.

"I need to talk with Maggie," she said to herself. "No matter how many times I have to hear her voice mail reject me."

 _ **Back with Luna and Lori...**_

The girls walked across the streets of Royal Woods, with Luna still gripping her bitten hand as it slowly recovered.

"Dang, man, Charles bites a lot harder than I thought," Luna remarked, taking a deep breath. "I mean, not to offend him, but I always thought his bark was worse than his bite."

"That'll teach you not to understimate him," Lori remarked.

And before the duo could say anything else, they crashed into someone: Haiku, to be exact.

"Oh hey, you're one of Lucy's friends, right?" Lori folded her hands. "What are you doing so late at night? Isn't it past your bedtime?"

Haiku blushed and narrowed her eyes. "I-I don't have a bedtime! And even if I had one, what I'm doing is none of your business!"

Luna promptly tried to stop the situation from getting heated. "Hey, calm down, little buddy-"

"Ugh, I don't have time for this!" Haiku snapped, stomping the ground. "I have to go to the poetry club right now!"

Haiku ran away afterwards, leaving the sisters alone.

"She didn't even give me a chance to talk to her," Luna blurted.

"They probably were busy with something," Lori shrugged. "You know how goths are: Literally obssessed with the occult and dark stuff, and shunning most social interaction."

Luna couldn't help but frown as the statement reminded her of Lucy, and Lori put a hand on the rocker's shoulder as she stated:

"You did everything you could."

"Did I?" Luna folded her arms. "Look, Lori, besides you and Leni, I'm the one our siblings look up to the most, and yet, by the end of our beach vacation; Leni strangles Sam, Lucy gets squished flatter than Mick Swagger's early songs, and we barely did anything against the hydra!"

Lori took a deep breath. "Luna, I'm literally only asking this to be sure: Why do you focus solely on the negative?"

Before Luna could answer, Lori grabbed her shoulders and pulled her forward as she proclaimed:

"You, and our siblings, literally survived against an attack from a beast from another dimension! And not just any beast, but one that was vastly different compared to the vanilla version! Any other person would've either died or wet themselves, but you lead everybody against it, and survived all the way 'till the end! Sure, you weren't alone on that fight, but you still took the initiative when that thing attacked!"

Lori pulled Luna closer until their noses touched.

"You literally lead the charge against a fucking hydra! And you know It's a big deal, because I used a swear word to emphasize it!"

Then, the sisters separated. "Do you understand, Luna?"

The rocker looked at the ground with slight worry, before nodding in confirmation, prompting Lori to state:

"Let's go, we've had enough distractions. There's something important I need to tell you."

 ** _Back at the Loud House..._**

Luan got the voice mail for, like, the fifth time, with her look showing a mixture of exhaustion and worry.

"Come on, Maggie, answer the phone!" Luan begged as she dialed the number. "I need to talk to you!"

Luan heard the first few beeps, then got a shocker when she heard a different answer:

"What the hell do you want?"

"Maggie?!" Luan chirped up. "Oh, thank goodness you finally answered-!"

"Listen up, Luan, because I'm only going to say this once: It's late at night, I'm in a terrible mood, and I've had to listen to your constant calling, for a half hour, and I asked you what the hell you wanted!" Maggie snapped in return. "So you better answer we right now, or I'm hanging up-"

"I couldn't sleep!" Luan exclaimed. "A-And I was hoping talking with you could help me... I dunno, relax or something!"

The other end was silent for a while, until Maggie asked:

"Luan, of all the people you could call, why would you call me?"

"Why? Because, even if we're no longer on good terms, I can still remember a time where we were friends... Best friends, even," Luan somberly answered. "And I knew if there was anybody who could help me... It was you."

Luan frowned. "But, I guess I forgot how things are between us right now... I'm sorry that I bothered you, I'll let you-"

"Wait."

Luan paused, and Maggie said:

"Right now's not a good time, but, if you can wait until tomorrow, I guess I could help you with your problem."

Luan smiled. "Sounds good to me."

"Come tomorrow to my house whenever you're ready, but be sure to let me know first," Maggie added. "Until then, please let me sleep."

"Alright, thank you, Maggie," Luan took a deep breath. "See you tomorrow."

Maggie hung up, and Luan promptly went back to her bed and tucked herself, the idea that Maggie was actually willing to help her once more giving her enough peace to fall back asleep.

 _ **Back at the Loud Backyard...**_

Lori and Luna rested on the grass, watching the star-filled sky

"So, back in the original reality, the other me controlled the moon?" Luna said, making sure she heard that right. "She raised it and lowered it and that?"

Lori nodded with a calm smile.

Luna, however, was still confused. "But, if my counterpart controlled the moon, who controlled the sun-?"

The sisters said "Lynn" in unison, then Luna pointed at her oldest sister as she exclaimed "Ding! You owe me a soda!"

The sisters laughed for a moment, with the laughter ceasing after a while. What came next was an awkward silence before Luna asked:

"Lori, why do you seem so stern and strict compared to Leni and Carol?"

Lori took a deep breath, stood up, and explained:

"There are two ways of learning, Luna: The easy way, and the hard way. I mostly learned through the latter, so, It's the only teaching method I know, really."

Tempted with curiosity, Luna hesitantly asked, "What's the difference?"

Lori stood up and walked a couple of feet away from Luna as she spoke:

"The hard way usually involves brute force, or testing somebody to their utmost limit."

Lori stopped and clenched her fist.

"And one way to do that, was through a physical battle."

Luna, realizing what the young adult was implying, stood up and powered up, surrounding herself in a purple aura that made small rocks nearby levitate around it.

Lori, for her part, chuckled and smiled before shaking her head, confusing the rocker.

"Classic Luna, jumping the gun," Lori chuckled and turned to her sister. "I said one way to learn the hard way was with a battle, I didn't say that was the only way."

Luna's eyes widened as she realized what that meant, but she shook her head and remained in her powered form.

"Even so, let me give this a shot!" Luna requested. "I need to know if I've improved!"

Lori shook her head, chuckled... Then gave Luna the "bring it on" gesture, with a confident smile to boot.

Luna returned the smile moments before she leaped forward and punched Lori in the face, managing to make the oldest sister back away a little.

With that done, Luna backed away and turned back to normal as Lori caressed her punched cheek and said:

"That literally did something, actually."

Luna smiled, feeling relieved at her apparent progress. However, what Lori said next bummed her out:

"However, aiming for me is pointless."

Luna narrowed her eyes. "What are you saying?"

"I'm too strong for you, and the only way to breach the gap between us is by beating Carol," Lori stated. "And the way to breach that gap needs you to defeat Leni."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Leni? What? But she wouldn't hurt a fly!"

"Forget that idea," Lori ordered.

Luna backed away at the order, then listened as Lori explained further:

"This world is literally much more than you thought at first, and if you and the rest of our siblings want to survive in this world, survive against the progenitors, you have to throw away all your beliefs about your old view of the world!"

After hearing that, Luna looked at the ground before she narrowed her eyes, glared at Lori and asked:

"Who's side are you on, Lori?"

Lori responded with a blunt answer:

"We're on nobody's side."

Luna nearly asked "who are we?" before Lori added:

"Leni and I."

The rockstar once again flinched, refusing to believe Leni and Lori had no side in the matter.

Well, Leni. Lori did seem like the kind of person to choose no side.

"Believe me or not, it doesn't change the fact you need to change your mind about the world, Luna," Lori put her hands on her pockets. "I'll let you play around a little bit longer, but don't forget to come home as soon as you feel tired."

"W-Wait, you're leaving me alone?!" Luna asked. "I thought you were going to stay with me the whole time!"

"I don't have the same luxury concerning sleep like you do, Luna," Lori smiled and threw a look at the rocker. "And besides, I can trust you not to get into trouble, right?"

Before Luna could answer, Lori summoned her eagle-like guardian-thing and flew back home, leaving Luna alone to think about the information that was just revealed to her.

As for Lori, as she flew across the skies with her arms spread, and an eagle-shaped being flew behind her, she narrowed her eyes and thought, with a clear tone of determination:

" _The beach attack made it clear the progenitors can attack anywhere and everywhere. And most importantly, we didn't forsee it. But I know one person who could've seen it coming... And they'll most likely know what happens next."_

Lori nodded to herself and continued flying in search for this entity.

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

A chibi version of Lynn and Luna stood at the sides of a blackboard, with the words "Next time" written on it.

"Whoa, so, I could control the sun in the past?!" Lynn said with excitement. "Maybe I could try doing that sometime!"

"Sure, dude, but for now, let's just say what's going to happen next," Luna replied, waving her hand. "Mind starting it for us?"

Lynn nodded and erased the writing, before drawing a peculiar scene: The remains of Atlantis, floating in the ocean, and a group flying to it.

"Looks like a group of people are going to be checking out the half of Atlantis that's floating in the ocean. I don't know why, but it should be interesting," Lynn shrugged. "What will happen elsewhere, Luna?"

The rocker erased the drawing and drew a trio, consisting of Haiku, Silas, and Rocky.

"Lucy's friend Haiku, as well as this gothic kid and redhead boy, are going to go... somewhere, in order to help Lucy with some sort of... stuff," Luna scratched her head. "Don't ask me, though, the author didn't tell me the whole story."

"Yeah, got it," Lynn flinched. "Wait a minute, doesn't Luan get angry when people break the fourth wall?"

And then Luan yelled from afar, "Hey, is that a freaking fourth wall break!"

"And that's all for today, folks!" Lynn said as she erased the drawing. "Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn, "Revisiting The Ancient Utopia, Atlantis! The Journey Into An Eldritch Dimension!"

Luna flashed a thumbs up. "Don't miss it!"

With that said, the duo immediately ran away as Luan flew after them, surrounded by a yellow aura with red, surging electricity.


	30. Return to Atlantis

**Okay, better get some things out of the way before we head to the chapter:**

 **Yes, I'm posting this chapter on the 1st of January of 2019, a Monday, instead of waiting for Sunday to come, but can you blame me? What better way to kick off a brand new year, than with a brand new Chains of Reality chapter?**

 **Second, there's this anime called "Puella Magi Madoka Magica," which the current story arc, the Proto-Lucy arc, takes a little bit inspiration from, along with probably a billion other things.**

 **If you know about the show, then you know exactly how much you need to be wary of the arc. If you don't know what that is... just letting you know, it's gonna get a bit dark.**

 **Also, due to the sheer number of stuff that happens in this arc, and how many character actually appear in it, things might get a bit cluttered. And why's this?**

 **Well, because the Proto-Lucy arc is the last arc of the first half of the Younger Prototypes Saga, of course! The second half will deal with Proto-Lisa, Proto-Lily, and the fabled Gate of Childhood that was probably mentioned once or twice in this entire story so far.**

 **Anyway, I don't wanna spoil some more stuff than necessary, so for now, let's answer some reviews!:**

 **1) Nobody245: I did say that, didn't I? Well, how about this: While they represent the very bad aspects of the sisters, they also have a shed of good traits within them?**

 **2) Hatoralo:**

 *** Well, he _was_ dealing with Sam...**

 *** Nope, that's not how it works. You'll have to read "The Crystal Leviathan" in the "omakes" sidestory to find out what happened, but it's not really important to the main storyline.**

 *** Lucy. It's Lucy.**

 **3) Guest/An Observant Guest: Interesting that you didn't put your whole name in there.**

 *** Those are interesting fusion ideas, and I did have some of those ideas in mind, but I'm afraid there are some rules that must be followed: One of the participants must be a Loud family member, so any fusion between two non-Louds isn't possible. And Lincoln can't fuse at all, due to a certain little brat... However, I could use those ideas to draw fusions on my DA, if you don't mind, of course.**

 *** I could do that. Thanks for the idea, buddy. :)**

 *** Hmm, I don't know, there's something about that music that also gives it an eerie vibe to me. That's probably just me, though.**

 *** Haiku, definitely. Silas, unquestionably. Rocky... I'll see what I can do with him.**

 *** Renee's part of her caste, yes. But what I have planned with her is... a bit disturbing.**

 *** It's the end of the first half of the first saga. So yeah, it'll be intense.**

 **4) ChernoMan:**

 *** I'm doing this on my own for this chapter, but by the time I post this I may or may not have Hope back on my side (see the pun?) so let's net get ahead of ourselves.**

 *** I would do the app thing, except my sister is also using my phone, and I'd rather not try to clean up some space only to delete something she put there herself...**

 *** Another universe, as you may see right now.**

 *** Calliope? She's coming as a plot point yes, but if that's not what meant, then what was it?**

 *** Better an even pace than a slow or fast one.**

 *** Well, Luna and Luan share the same room, so I figured the should share the focus here as well.**

 *** Don't you think them being "extinction event/life wiping" catastrophes could possibly mean they could also control lesser things? Remember, in this universe, both versions of the Loud family used to be gods. And not just any gods, but gods in charge of running the universe. They had to take up the slack somehow.**

 *** You're getting this the first day of the new year, so I hope you start it with a bang!**

 **5) Guest/Observant Guest: Oh, okay. XD**

 **6) GennaiArakida-XIV:**

 *** Maggie and Lincoln's relationship is nowhere near "I've forgiven you" status.**

 *** What _didn't_ they leave behind?**

 *** More or less, yes.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 30: Revisiting The Ancient Utopia, Atlantis! The Journey Into An Eldritch Dimension!**

* * *

 ** _The Organization..._**

A set of agents stood in a tow and looked at the monitor as it turned on.

Among these agents were Becky, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Shrinivas, Mrs. DiMartino, and Mr. and Mrs. Loud.

Oh, and Greg was there too, cleaning the floors.

As soon as the monitor turned on, it moved to see all the agents as it said, with a robotic monotone:

"Good morning, agents."

"Um, sir, it's actually 1 pm," Greg pointed out, focused on his task. "I tried booting you up in the morning, but it wouldn't do anything, so I asked Mrs. Shrinivas for her help, and she spent several hours fixing you up."

"Oh, is that so?" the monitor lowered itself. "That's weird. Perhaps it was a bug? But regardless, thanks for your help, Mrs. Shrinivas."

"N-No problem," Mrs. Shrinivas replied. She scratched the back of her head as she added, "Anyway, could you give us our mission for today?"

"Right, the mission," the monitor turned its screen on and generated an image of Atlantis. "As you all probably know, the island of Atlantis rose during the fight against Prototype Lana."

The image changed to show Atlantis' destroyed remains. "And was split in half as a result of the destruction of its core."

The image focused on the half in the ocean. "Your mission is to go to the piece of Atlantis that's floating in the ocean, and gather as much information on it as possible."

"What about the half of Atlantis that's stuck in the mountains?" Mrs. DiMartino asked, and the image focused on said part afterwards. "And now that I remember, wasn't there a lovechild in the city before its destruction?"

"The lovechildren you speak of are two, and according to the scans, they're located in the piece floating in the ocean, while the piece in the mountains is deserted," the image changed to show Leia by Lizy's side. "If possible, try to capture the lovechildren and bring them here."

The monitor's screen turned back to normal. "Also, a certain someone is coming with you."

Mrs. DiMartino tilted her head. "Who?"

"Sorry for the wait!"

The members turned around and saw the reporter lady, Catherine Sweetwater, approaching them.

"I'm the member the monitor's talking about," the reporter lady answered. "They told me you were going to Atlantis, and they asked me if I wanted to come."

"And you couldn't say no to that, right?" Mrs. Johnson guessed.

"Of course not! This is my chance to make a news report about something bigger than Royal Woods!" Catherine chirped as she took out her microphone. "I've even been practicing your introductions!"

The teacher trio tilted their head as the woman walked to Mrs. DiMartino.

"A Hispanic teacher with a love for children! Her brains are nothing compared to her natural beauty!" Catherine spoke with a dramatic tone. "Everybody welcome, Maria DiMartino!"

DiMartino posed and giggled, while Becky, Mrs. Johnson, and Mrs. Shrinivas watched with confusion.

"She didn't register the insult?" Mrs. Shrinivas asked.

"To be fair, that's nothing new," Mrs. Johnson argued.

Then Catherine pointed at Mrs. Johnson:

"A buzzkill by day, wild party animal by night! The only thing that hits harder than her punches are her cringy jokes! A round of applause for, Agnes Johnson!"

*SMACK!*

Catherine laid on the ground as steam came out of her head. Becky glared at her and clenched her steaming fist.

"Stop screwing around!" the young woman snapped at the reporter. "And if you insult my sister like that again, I'll turn you into a pretzel!"

Catherine weakly gave a thumbs up. "N-Noted."

"Anyway, we're wasting time here," Mrs. Johnson stated before she turned to the parents. "We'll go now. Good luck building the weapons, Louds."

"Good luck with Atlantis, too!" Rita replied as she waved goodbye.

Mrs. Johnson nodded, and she and her squad left for Atlantis while the Loud parents and Maggie's Mom went to craft the weaponry, leaving Greg alone to mop the floors... Until he suddenly asked the monitor:

"So, how's the school business going?"

The monitor moved up and tilted to the side.

"You know, the reason why we've been working here for over a month and the kids don't have school?" Greg added, before pausing his moping. "The one job you gave Principal Higgins?"

Greg narrowed his eyes and glared at the machine, asking:

"You didn't forget about it... Did you?"

 _ **Outside the Poetry Club...**_

Lucy slowly walked to the entrance to the club. She pulled her bangs down to hide the new look of her eyes, feeling that they might give her unwanted attention, and she clutched her chest as she took deep breaths, trying to keep herself calm.

"Haiku has always been there for me, and whenever I've been in trouble, she's been there for me," Lucy told herself with a worried tone. "If there's somebody I can talk to about my new state... It's her."

With that in mind, the goth girl gathered her courage and barged into the poetry club.

And once she went inside, she saw there was nobody else besides the Sadie Hawkins dates, and Silas, though he was so shrouded in shadows the girl didn't even notice him.

"Oh hey, it's the goth sister," Polly remarked, and the rest of the dates turned to see Lucy as she walked to them. "It's been a while, how have you been?"

"I've been... good," Lucy answered with a nervous smile. "Sorry, but I came to talk with Haiku. In private."

Understanding the situation, the remaining dates left the room and the girls alone, but not before Giggles silently wished Haiku good luck.

Lucy promptly sat with Haiku on the same table, and the gothic date asked, "So, what do you want to talk about, Lucy?"

"I'm sorry if I made you worry," Lucy said, twiddling her fingers. "You know, with the whole "dying" thing and such."

"It's okay, Lucy, everybody suffered when the hydra attacked," Haiku replied, patting the girl's back. "Besides, you're not dead anymore!"

"But according to Leni, I'm not exactly alive either," Lucy put a hand on her cheek. "She says I'm stuck in some sort of state of being until I either revive or die again."

Lucy scratched her chin. "And I know what'll happen when I revive, but if I die again before that happens... What do you think will happen?"

Haiku frowned. "Lucy, that's not something you should be thinking about."

"I know, but I can't help it," Lucy frowned. "Especially considering my counterpart wants me dead."

And then the girl realized something. "Speaking of that, have you gotten the eyes yet?"

Haiku flinched. "I, uh... I'm working on it-"

"What?!" Lucy exclaimed in shock, so much so, she slammed her hands down the table. "Haiku, if I don't give my counterpart what she wants, she's going to steal my eyes! Or even worse!"

"C-Calm down! You still have a couple days before she comes for payment, right?" Haiku pointed out, and this earned her a nod from the goth. "Just be a bit more patient and I'll get the eyes in no time!"

Lucy took a deep breath. "You're right, getting impatient won't help anybody. And besides, being a worrywart is Lincoln's deal. And maybe Lori's too."

"Yeah, I've heard those two can get a bit neurotic when things get out of hand, but anyway, just calm down," Haiku suggested, resting her chin on the back of her hand. "And if you're having trouble doing that, then read a book, draw something-"

"Train!" Lucy exclaimed. "I totally forgot I had to train today with Carol and the others!"

Lucy stood up. "Sorry that I have to cut this short, Haiku, but I gotta go!"

"It's alright, Lucille, I understand," Haiku said with a calm tone, and a reassuring smile. "Good luck with training."

With that said, Lucy bolted out of the club and bid farewell, while Haiku waved goodbye with a little smile.

"You should've scolded her while you had the chance."

The gothic poet turned around and saw none other than Silas approaching her, sporting a stern look.

"You again..." Haiku hissed.

"Lucy showing regret for trapping herself in a deal with her counterpart isn't enough," Silas added in a cold tone. "She needs to be verbally punished for doing such a reckless action in the first place. It's the only way she'll learn her lesson!"

"Lucy's suffered enough, Silas!" Haiku snapped and stomped the ground as she stood up. "Scolding her won't solve anything!"

"Oh, sorry, it seems I was talking out loud again," Silas replied, his stern tone and glare unfaltering at Haiku's stare. "I was practicing what I would say when I finally find someone who's willing to talk back to the Louds."

Haiku rolled her eyes. "What do you want, Silas?"

"You're going to need help to gather the eyes, especially if you plan on going to another dimension," Silas stated bluntly. "After all, the best bet to please Mother Lucy is by giving her a Lucy's eyes, right?"

"Do you know who you're talking with? I was one of the original champions of the progenitors, or at least, my counterpart was. I think I know what I'm getting into!" Haiku sternly replied as she put her hands on her hips, then added, "And besides, why do you care?!"

"Because unlike you, I know what it feels like to not be treated as Mother Lucy's pet dog," Silas narrowed his eyes. "And believe me, if Lucy receives the same treatment, she'll never be able to sleep again."

Haiku folded her arms. "Fine, you can come if you want, but let's get going already-"

"Not yet," Silas shook his head. "There's still one person we need to recruit."

Haiku raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

 _ **Meanwhile, at Atlantis... a half if it, anyway...**_

The news crew's van, now with a pair of fancy wings to its side, flew towards and landed at the edge of the piece of Atlantis floating in the ocean. Once it safely landed, the whole place shook for a brief moment.

"Okay, everybody, according to the records, the Atlanteans balanced, and justified, their utopia's existence by making it rather frail," Becky explained as she gently got off the vehicle. "So be careful with what you do, and regardless, be as gentle as possible-"

And then Mrs. DiMartino and Mrs. Johnson, both wearing swimsuits, jumped out of the back and into the ocean, proclaiming:

"Cannonball!"

And then they were caught mid-air by a green laser of sorts, which was done by Mrs. Shrinivas. "We came here to investigate Atlantis, not to swim!"

"Boo!" Mrs. Johnson exclaimed.

"I wanna swim!" Mrs. DiMartino whined.

"You can fool around when we're done here!" Becky snapped sternly. "Until then, put on your clothes and help us scout the area!"

One quick change of clothes later, the team began looking around the floating ruins. As they searched, they kept an eye out for anything that caught their attention

"Oh, look, a sea slug!" DiMartino chirped, pointing at the slug in question.

More specifically, anything that caught their interest _and was related to the mission_.

"Aw."

This continued until the team came across a peculiar sight: Leia and Lizy, the twin lovechildren, resting near some debris. Lizy took several deep breaths and put a hand over her forehead, while Leia tried everything she could to help her recover.

As for how she looked? Same outfit as Leia, but with a blue paw mark replacing the diamond, and navy blue highlights replacing the pink ones. She also had a pair of pigtails... shaped like wings.

"Don't worry, Lizy," Leia said while she rubbed her sister's head, and tried to hold back tears. "Your big sister Leia's here to care for and protect you."

Lizy lightly chuckled. "I'm a year older than you-"

"The Lizy from my dimension wasn't!" Leia snapped withot warning.

And then the lovechildren heard the team approaching, with Leia's glare forcing them to stop.

"Calm down, lovechildren," Becky said before she took a couple steps forward. "We just want to-"

Leia touched her earpiece and shouted, "Eidoleias, assemble!"

A bunch of pink portals opened up, and five Eidoleias jumped out of them, snarling at the team as soon as they emerged.

"Wow, Lincoln really does get around," Mrs. DiMartino scoffed.

"That's not a good thing," Mrs. Johnson stated.

The Eidoleias leaped at the team, but while Mrs. Shrinivas, Mrs. Johnson, and Mrs. DiMartino were caught off-guard by them, Becky created lighting blades and sliced the remaining Eidoleias in half, with the zombie-like entities shattering as soon as they hit the ground.

And as Leia shivered at the challenge in front of her, Becky aimed one of her blades at her and stated:

"Listen, this can only end in two ways: You come with us willingly, or we force you to come. What will you do?"

Leia narrowed her eyes, stood up, then aimed her palm at Lizy and exclaimed:

"This! Chain fusion!"

A chain sprouted from Leia's palm and headed straight for Lizy, successfully catching her. Becky tried to slice the chain in half, but her blades shattered instead, with the shock stunning her long enough for Leia to pull Lizy towards her until their bodies touched, engulfing them in a pillar of light that sent Becky flying a couple feet away.

The pillar dissipated soon after, revealing Leia and Lizy were nowhere to be seen, and instead, someone else was there:

She had a similar build to the twins, even having the same outfit, but she had four ponytails: The upper ponytails looked normal, of a little ruffled, but the lower ones were wrapped around her neck and going down as if they were a scarf. She also had diamond-shaped pupils with glittering lights, like Lala.

"Now you're in real trouble!" the being said with a voice identical to Leia's. "I'm neither Leia or Lizy! I'm..."

The girl posed dramatically.

"Lezy!"

Everybody went silent as the team stared at the fusion with deadpan looks, even as a tumbleweed passed by.

"What's a tumbleweed doing here?" Catherine asked as she watched the thing fall into the water. "We're literally in the middle of the ocean!"

"Don't ignore me!" Lezy exclaimed before she dashed towards the team. "You've chosen to persecute a pair of innocent girls, now face the wrath of the fusion of faith, Lezy!"

Becky said nothing: Instead, she smirked as she cracked her knuckles, ready for a fight.

 _ **Meanwhile, at the Spokes Family household...**_

The siblings of the house, Rocky and Rusty Spokes, were at the living room, the former drawing something on a piece of paper, while the latter was talking with someone on the phone.

"I swear, Flat Tire, most of my nightmares I've had lately revolve around, or have Penelope present in them!" Rusty told the phone. "Not only that, but she's almost always accompanied by a red, shadowy figure!"

Then, the doorbell was heard, and Rocky went to answer it while his brother continued talking on the phone.

Once he opened it, he met Silas and Haiku, the latter staring angrily at him while the former asked, "Can we go to your room? We need to talk to you in private."

Rocky blinked twice, and next thing he knew, he, Silas, and Haiku were at his room, with the girl looking suspiciously at him.

"So, you're the boy who once had a "thing" with Lucy, huh?" she asked, leaning closer towards the boy. "Well, let me tell you something, you little-"

Before she could finish her threat, Haiku was interrupted by Silas smacking her head, which he continued to do as Rocky watched with confusion.

"Silas, who's this girl?" Rocky asked.

"Remember when I told you a girl in my class has a crush on Lucy?" Silas inquired, earning a nod from Rocky. "This is her."

Silas stopped hitting Haiku, and the girl grabbed her hair and snapped, "I don't have a crush on her! I'm just very worried for her well-being!"

"Why?" Rocky asked, growing slightly worried. "Did something happen?"

Silas whispered the deal to Rocky, who was understandably shocked. "She did what!?"

"I know, but don't worry: We'll head to another dimension to get the eyes she needs!" Haiku answered with a reassuring tone. "Trust me, as soon as we hand over the eyes to her counterpart, she's going to be fine!"

"We're going to go to another dimension! I can't just go without telling Rusty or Dad!" Rocky replied. "And besides, how are we going to go there anyway?"

"You don't have to worry about telling your family," Silas stated, folding his arms. Whichever dimension we go through, we'll be finished before your family notices you're gone."

"And as for the part about how we're going to get there," Haiku said as she reached for her chest, put her hand inside it-with it phasing through it-and took out a small white sphere. "We'll use this."

Haiku promptly turned the sphere into a scythe, which she then used to tear open a portal in the middle of the room.

Silas grabbed Rocky's hand, and Haiku turned to the duo and said, with an excited smile:

"Ladies first. And by ladies, I mean you two."

 _ **Back in Atlantis...**_

Becky dodged Lezy's beams and attacks with small effort, while occassionally smacking or kicking the fusion lightly, all while the teacher trio and news crew watched.

"As you can see, the lovechildren have merged together to create a warrior known as Lezy! Spelled with an "e," not an "a," Catherine reported to the camera. "However, being a highly skilled agent of the RWDF, Becky Johnson shows little trouble facing off against her."

"That's only because this is clearly against my favor!" Lezy snapped before raising her leg. "But not for long!"

The fusion stomped the ground, freezing it in a wide area and causing Becky to slip and trip.

"Becky!" Mrs. Johnson exclaimed before rushing forward.

Lezy smirked and clapped her hands, causing some crystals to sprout. And from said crystals came out entities that could only be described as Eidolezies: They looked like Lezy, but had serpentine features alongside crystals growing all around their bodies.

The fusion snapped her fingers, and the Eidolezies rushed towards the teacher trio, keeping them busy as Lezy slid across the frozen floor and kicked Becky away, sending her sliding right into some rubble.

"Oh no, looks like Lazy lezily decided to change the environment to gain an advantage!" Catherine said as she casually slid to Becky, then crouched down. "Will the young woman known as Becky manage to regain her seemingly certain victory?"

"You can walk on this surface?!" Becky exclaimed in disbelief.

"Well, yeah, the Lola caste can walk on any mineral or gem floor without problem," Catherine answered. She closed her eyes and nodded. "And before you ask, yes, ice does count."

Becky smiled, and next thing she knew, Lezy heard Catherine exclaim:

"Breaking news, everybody!"

Lezy turned around, and she couldn't believe what she was looking at: Becky sat on Catherine's shoulders while the newswoman, still holding the microphone, proclaimed:

"Humble reporter lady Catherine Sweetwater joins forces with agent Becky Johnson to perform a desperate plan! The double skating chicken legs formation!"

"We didn't agree on that name!" Becky stated as she slapped Catherine in the cheek. "Now, start sliding and dodge her attacks!"

Catherine raised an eyebrow. "You're not going to attack?"

Then, Lezy shot a diamond blast at the duo, which prompted the woman to slide away as she exclaimed, "Okay, I'm sliding now!"

Lezy continued to shoot blasts at the pair, with Becky occassionally shooting lighting bolts back as Catherine slid to the best of her ability. This continued for a while until Becky noticed Lezy breath heavily and slowing down, while two of her chains dissipated into nothing.

"You're doing good, Catherine," Becky said, parting the woman's hair. "Keep it up for a little bit longer!"

Catherine nodded, and the duo continued dodging attacks until Lezy finally ran out of energy, and her chains and locks broke, splitting her back into Leia and Lizy and turning everything back to normal.

With that done, Becky jumped off Catherine's shoulders and walked to the lovechildren, who stared at her defiantly.

"What do you want from us?" Leia asked.

Becky smiled and extended a hand towards the girls, saying:

"We want to ask you a couple questions."

 ** _Back with Silas, Haiku, and Rocky..._**

The trio reached the other end of the portal and landed in a dimension with red skies, red grass, buildings... actually, the whole dimension had a red tint to it, not to mention an unnerving atmosphere.

"Where are we?" Rocky asked as he fearfully clung to Haiku for comfort, who gently pushed him away.

"The EXE dimension," Silas answered as he looked at his surroundings. "All you need to know about this place is that it's ruled by a Lucy, so we won't need to look too long for one."

Silas looked at the distance, and narrowed his eyes as he added:

"Because they'll take us to her."

Rocky tilted his head. "Who?"

Two figures landed close to the team and glared at them as they revealed themselves to be a Haiku and a Lynn, both with black sclera, red pupils, and red markings running down their eyes.

Silas didn't have to say anything to confirm Rocky's suspicions: Those two were going to take them to this world's Lucy.

And they did... by turning into clouds, absorbing the team into them, then teleporting to that Lucy's location, before spitting them out and turning back to normal.

Once out, the team saw the Lucy they were taken to: She looked like the Lucy they knew, but like the Haiku and Lynn, she had black sclera, red pupils, and red markings going down her eyes. She also sat on top of a throne, seemingly made of skulls.

"Your Highness, we're back," the Lynn said as she and the other Haiku bowed down. "And we've brought the infiltrators, as you asked."

"Good work, Xynn, Xaiku," the Lucy said before she glared at the trio. "And would you look at that? These infiltrators have been here before."

The Lucy looked at Haiku and Silas, then Rocky. "Well, two of them, at least."

"Infiltrators?" Rocky asked. "N-No, we just came here to ask for your help!"

The Lucy raised an eyebrow. "What kind of help?"

"Okay, long story short, Your Highness, your counterpart from our dimension made a deal with her prototype self," Silas explained sternly. "Now, if she doesn't give her the eyes of a Lucy, she will take her eyes instead."

"And I'm assuming you want me to give you my eyes, just so my counterpart can complete her part of the deal?" the Lucy guessed as she rested her cheek on her fist. "Even if failing the deal would teach her a valuable lesson?"

Silas nodded, followed by Haiku and Rocky.

After a couple seconds, the Lucy took a deep breath, then ripped off her eyes without so much as flinching. The resulting eye sockets left behind, which the trio saw as the girl saved her eyes in a bag, could best be described as black holes.

"There you go," the Lucy said, throwing the bag at the team as she added, "Be sure to return them if they don't work."

"Thanks, Your Highness!" Rocky exclaimed as the team grabbed the bag.

"Xucy, are you sure this is a good idea!?" Xynn exclaimed, and she stomped the ground as she pointed at Haiku and Silas. "You know what happened when those two came here the first time!"

"I know what I'm doing, Xynn," the Lucy answered, before glaring at the trio. "And besides, I never said I was giving them for free."

The trio turned back to Xucy, Haiku and Silas ready to attack while Rocky hid behind them.

"Calm down, I want only one thing in return, and that's not a fight," Xucy narrowed the black voids that were her eye sockets. "I want access to your dimension."

Haiku and Rocky took a step back, while Silas folded his arms and stated:

"As you wish."

The guy reached for his back, took out three spade-shaped... things, and threw them at Xaiku, Xynn, and Xucy.

"When we're in trouble, those things will give off a signal that'll be your cue to enter our dimension," Silas explained. "Until then, however, you'll have to stay here and wait, Your Highness. Is that okay with you?"

"Hmph, as long as I get to beat up that fake Lucy, I have no problems with your plan," Xucy said as she saved the thing on her back. "Now, since you have the eyes you need, I suggest you leave right now."

Haiku raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

Xucy closed her eyes, and opened them again, revealing a pair of newly-regenerated golden eyes as she hissed:

"I said, leave!"

Xucy's eyes glew, and a black hole materialized behind the trio, forcefully sucking them inside itself before Xucy blinked, causing it to wink out of existence.

 ** _Meanhile, back at the organization..._**

Becky, Catherine, and the teacher trio watched as Flip interrogated the lovechild twins inside the interrogation room. And judging by his frustration, he wasn't getting any results.

"He's been there for 10 minutes, and the twins still haven't talked," Mrs. Johnson remarked, shaking her head. "I knew Flip made for a poor businessman, but I didn't think he'd be a bad interrogator too."

"Come to think of it, why did they put Flip as their interrogator?" Mrs. DiMartino asked, scratching her chin. "I thought he was supposed to be in charge of intelligence and all that."

"He is, but in the organization, everybody works as everything when necessary," Mrs. Shrinivas answered. "That, and I think our other interrogators aren't available right now."

Mrs. DiMartino frowned, and Catherine realized something, "Wait, there's something I still don't understand."

Mrs. Johnson rolled her eyes. "What a shock."

"What was that "Lezy" stuff all about?" the reporter woman asked. "Like, what did the lovechilden do?"

"Chain fusion," Becky stated, getting the team's attention. "It's a last resort used by chain breakers in case they end up cornered and they're out of options."

"One chain breaker creates a chain from their palm, grabs another breaker and forces them to combine into one being," Mrs. Johnson added. "The resulting fusion resembles either both or the strongest component of them, and holds both of their abilities."

DiMartino crossed her arms. "I fail to see the difference between that and normal fusion."

"In chain fusion, there's a "warden" and a "prisoner," the one who starts the fusion and the fusee," Becky answered. "Unlike normal fusion, in chain fusion, the warden has the most control, and both they and the prisoner have to fight for control, assuming the fusion isn't mutual."

"The fusion ends either after 30 minutes, or when both the warden and the prisoner are too exhausted to keep it up," Mrs. Shrinivas remarked. "That's probably why, after just 5 minutes, Lezy's fusion ended."

"It was just a matter of time," Becky sighed. "Anyway, we're not getting results watching Flip getting frustrated, let's get back to our work."

The women nodded, and they promptly went back to their stations.

"Hey," Becky blurted, getting Catherine's attention. "Thanks for the help back there."

"You mean the skating part? It was no problem," Catherine replied, waving her hand in a dismissive manner. "I'm supposed to stay at the sidelines, so in terms of helping you, it was the least I could do."

"Still, thanks a lot," Becky patted the reporter's back. "If there's anything you need help with in the near future, I'd be happy to help."

Catherine smiled and nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."

With that said, the women exchanged nods and went back to their work stations.

 ** _Back at Rocky's bedroom..._**

A portal opened in the middle of the room, and from there the trio jumped out: Silas landed on the ground, while Haiku hit it, and Rocky fell on top of her.

"Silas, what were you thinking!?" Haiku snapped, pushing away Rocky and getting up. "Do you really think _that_ Lucy is someone we can trust!?"

"Are _you_ someone we can trust, Haiku?" Silas retorted. "Because I've been doubting that for a while now."

Haiku gritted her teeth, and she and Silas were separated by Rocky, who said:

"Focus on what's important: We got the eyes for Lucy's deal, now all we gotta do is hand them over when the time comes!"

"You're right, Rocky," Silas sighed, before glancing at the bag containing the eyes. "This is what matters right now."

"Now, only one thing left to decide," Haiku stated. "Who's going to keep it for now?"

"Well, I certainly can't do it," Rocky said shaking his head. "If my Dad and my brother found them, they'd have a lot of questions to ask me. That is, if they don't faint first."

"So, that would leave Silas and me," Haiku remarked, putting her hands on her hips. "And being Lucy's best friend and most trustworthy ally-"

"You're in no position to declare yourself trustworthy, you former love interest!" Silas snatched the bag. "I'll be taking the bag, and when Lucy needs to hand it over, you can come pick it up!"

Haiku flinched as her nerve was struck, and she hissed and gritted her teeth as Silas walked out, followed by Haiku furiously stomping the ground as she left too.

With them gone, Rocky sighed:

"Something tells me those two don't exactly get along."

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

A chibi version of Lynn, Lucy, Margo, and Paige stood at the sides of a blackboard.

"Hello everybody, I'm Lynn!" the jock greeted. "This is my sister, Lucy."

"Hi," the goth girl quietly greeted.

"And the pair to our side are a pair of future losers," Lynn nonchalantly said about Margo and Paige, who threw an annoyed look at her. "And we'll be the ones to tell you what's coming next chapter!"

Lynn took out a chalk and promptly drew a field, with Lynn and Polly on one side, and Margo and Paige on the other side.

"Polly and I are going to have a sports match with Margo and Paige!"

Lucy erased the drawing and drew herself and Leni inside some train, with another Lucy drawn on the driver's seat.

"And Leni is going to take me somewhere on a train!" Lucy said. She then thought about it and asked the duo, "Are we forgetting something?"

"Hmm... No, I think that's about it," Paige remarked with a shrug. "Anyway, next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Margo erased the drawing and wrote the name of the chapter before she exclaimed it:

" _Duality of Life and Death! An Afterlife Turned Upside Down? A Fire That Burns Even a God?!_ "

"Wait, what?" Lynn and Lucy asked in unison.

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough," Margo answered with a smug smile.

"Anyway, that's it," Paige said, seemingly ignoring Margo's smugness. "Don't miss it!"

Margo and Paige waved goodbye, while Lucy and Lynn exchanged concerned looks.


	31. Fire of the Afterlife

**And now we bring you the next chapter of Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn, and the last mini arc chapter before the Proto-Lucy arc begins proper... I hope. XD**

 **Before we begin, though, I need to tell you that right now, I don't have a laptop anymore since the one Mom, sis and I borrowed was returned a while back.**

 **So yes, it might take a little longer for the next chapter to come out.**

 **Anyway, the main thing to note about this chapter is that we're going to both visit the afterlife, and also discover something else about Lynn's powers that you may or may not have figured out already by this point.**

 **We're also going to see a certain someone again, someone we may or may not see again later down the line in this arc.**

 **But first, let's reply to some reviews:**

 **1) ChernoMan:**

 *** Yeah, right.**

 *** Maybe? She's not exactly the only person in the whole story like that.**

 *** Who?**

 *** Hmm, I guess that would've worked, yes, but oh well, too late to change now.**

 *** Thank you. :)**

 **2) Nobody245:**

 *** Huh, looks like I'm in quite a bind, aren't I? XD**

 *** The dimension itself isn't based on any fanfics, as far as I'm aware. It's based on the "dot exe" creepypasta type of stories, you know, like Sonic dot exe? That kind of stuff.**

 **3) Observant Guest:**

 *** Got it, I'll try to do so sometime, which, as far as anybody knows, could be during the latter half of this year. XD**

 *** Lucy's the focus, and she's all about the creeps and the spooks and the appear-out-of-nowhereos.**

 *** Yeah, don't know important it will be later on, but it's good to know there are other ways of fusion, right?**

 *** Interesting you mention Benny and Silas as being the "L is for Love" interests that get the least attention, because you're very right: Silas is more often than not used for fights against Rocky and Lucy, and Benny? I don't see him ANYWHERE!**

 *** A, Lavender Town, such an old meme-ish nightmare fuel. To think something like this story could bring it back... I don't know how to feel about it, honestly. XD**

 *** Well, you can verify those moments right here, right now, old pal. :)**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 31: Duality of Life and Death! An Afterlife Turned Upside Down? A Fire That Burns Even a God?!**

* * *

It was a calm day at the Loud house. Lucy Loud was sitting on the couch, watching a Tv show with a deadpan look.

This was when Leni arrived and sat next to her, though the goth girl didn't seem to notice.

"Hi, Lucy," Leni greeted with a friendly tone. "Nice day we got, right?"

Lucy glanced at her sister, then nervously looked away before she answered, "Y-Yeah... it's nice..."

Leni paused, took a deep breath, and said, "Where's Lynn?"

"She went to play a game with her friends somewhere else," the goth girl explained with a somber tone. "At least, that's what she told me she'd do before she left."

"And what about, like, the rest of our sisters?" Leni inquired as she raised an eyebrow. "Can't you hang out with them?"

"Lori went with Carol to go see Lynn's game, Luna and Luan are resting in their room, the twins are training with each other, and whatever Lisa and Lily are doing, I think it's for the best that nobody gets involved," Lucy explained as she rested her chin on her palm. "So, I'm pretty much on my own for today."

Leni refrained from mentioning Lincoln, for the fact Sincoln would probably ruin the experience eventually. So, from the looks of it, Lucy really was alone.

Which is just what Leni needed. "Hey, Lucy, would you, like, come with me for a second? There's something I want to show you."

Lucy raised an eyebrow, and next thing she knew, she and Leni were at the backyard, where the fashionista handed her an item.

It was a black whistle, with the image of a skull in it.

"It's a whistle," Lucy stated with an inquisitive tone and a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, now, blow it," Leni requested, then hastily added, "A-and please blow it slowly and gently."

Lucy raised an eyebrow, but quickly shrug it off and got ready to blow the whistle... only to hesitate.

Leni frowned. "What's wrong?"

Lucy took a step back and threw a look of distrust at the fashionista. "This isn't a trap set by whoever's controlling you, right?"

"Right, I completely forgot Lori and I, like, showed you our counterparts," Leni folded her arms. "But, you got nothing to worry about, Lucy. This is totes not a trap."

Lucy narrowed her eyes. "That just makes me more suspicious. But, well, I guess there's only one way to find out."

The goth blew the whistle, slowly and gently like Leni requested, and a couple seconds later, the duo heard a train approaching, but no sign of where it would approach.

They then looked at the sky the second time the train was heard, and noticed the train coming out of the clouds and onto the ground, landing nearby the pair and giving them a closer look at it.

It was floating right above the ground, and it was enveloped in a light blue, glowing light, with small white spheres flying around it.

But most importantly, a familiar face was riding: Great Grandma Harriet!

"Everybody get on-board!" the conductor shouted as she came out of the conductor's window and waved her hat. "The Afterlife Train has millions of passengers waiting for it, so I can't waste time here!"

"Great Grandma Harriet?!" Lucy exclaimed, slightly chirping up.

"Lucy?!" the ghostly conductor said, equally surprised. "Don't tell me you already hit the bucket!"

The goth's excitement soon turned into confusion. "Wait, what?"

"This is the Afterlife Train, a supernatural train built to take the souls of the deceased to... well, the afterlife," Leni explained, brushing Lucy's hair. "Would you, like, to hitch a ride?"

Lucy glanced back at the train, and with her eyes glowing with delight, she chirped:

"Yes!"

 _ **Meanwhile, at the Royal Woods gym...**_

Giggles, Tabby, and Polly Pain entered the gym and walked towards the volleyball court, sharing a little dialogue along the way:

"This is where Lynn, Margo, and you are going to have your match?" Giggles asked as she took a look around. "I'm surprised there's nobody else here at this hour."

"It's usually full, but we kinda had to pick an empty day since last time Lynn was here, she provoked some bodybuilders into fighting her," Polly answered, saving her hands on her pockets. "It's a friendly game between us, though, so I don't think she'll start trash talking or something like that."

"You realize she could always find another way to mess things up, right?" Tabby quipped.

Polly sighed somberly. "Yeah, I'm sadly aware of that..."

Giggles jabbed Tabby's shoulder, which prompted the rocker to add, "S-Sorry..."

"No, it's alright, I've used to people joking about Lynn like that," Polly replied, waving her hand. "Granted, Giggles is usually the one joking about it..."

With that said, the girls reached the volleyball court, where the trio separated: Giggles and Tabby sat on the stands, where Lori and Carol were at as well, while Polly went to the field, where Lynn and Margo were waiting for her.

"Polly! We've been waiting for you!" Lynn exclaimed as she ran to her partner. "What took you so long?!"

Polly narrowed her eyes. "I was five minutes late!"

"Even a single minute late is unacceptable for an athlete, Polly, you should know that by now!" Lynn stated. "Anyway, now that Polly's here, let's begin the match!"

"Actually, before we begin," Margo said as she reached for her back. "There's something I want to show you first."

The girls went closer to Margo as she took out a certain item from her back: It was her Bun-Bun.

"You have a Bun-Bun?!" Lynn exclaimed, putting a hand on her hip. "I thought Lincoln was the only one who had one of those!"

"But more importantly, where's the ball?" Polly folded her arms and frowned. "It was your turn to bring it, right?"

"Yes, it was my turn," Margo smiled and lifted her Bun-Bun. "In fact, you're looking at the ball right now."

The Bun-Bun folded its arms and nodded, while Polly and Lynn, naturally, were a little skeptical about the idea.

"We're going to use your own Bun-Bun as a ball?" Polly asked with concern. "Margo, are you sure that's-"

"Wait, you didn't let me finish," Margo turned to her Bun-Bun. "Are you ready?"

The toy nodded, and they were promptly thrown into the air as Margo exclaimed:

"Bun-Bun, become a ball, and metamorph!"

The toy's eyes glew before it was covered in light. They then slowly morphed until they turned into a ball, which landed on Margo's hand.

"Wow, I didn't know they could do that!" Lynn scratched her chin. "I have to mention this to Lincoln when I get back!"

"Are you ready, Lynn?" Margo asked with a confident smile.

The jock cracked her knuckles and smirked. "You can bet I am! Let's-!"

"Wait! There's still one more thing we need to deal with," Polly pointed out, earning exasperated looks from the athletes. "We don't have an even number of players!"

"Oh right, because Polly's playing on my side, but Margo's alone," Lynn scratched her chin. "And we can't count her Bun-Bun either, 'cause they're going to be the ball."

"Don't worry, girls," Margo sighed. "I already got that covered."

Margo whistled, and her partner for the match appeared, revealing themselves to be none other than Paige.

"Paige?!" Lynn and Polly exclaimed in unison, before pointing at each other and saying, "You know her?!"

"She helped us at Atlantis," Lynn answered with a casual tone, almost as if it wasn't anything new to her at this point.

"And I, well... I prefer not to talk about it," Polly turned to the girl. "But anyway, what are you doing here, Paige?"

"I had nothing better to do, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to give this game a shot," Paige answered as she stretched. "And before you ask, no, I didn't join the losing team."

"Yeah, of course you didn't," Lynn shrugged with a confident smirk. "But, I guess it would be better to show than tell you."

Paige and Margo narrowed her eyes as Lynn said "Alright, let's begin!" and ran to her position, with Polly frowning in response.

"I'm really sorry you had to see her act like that," Polly told the enemy team. "She acts like that whenever it involves a game, friendly or not. Anyhow, I'm gonna go to my position too. Good luck!"

Polly ran to her spot and Margo and Paige went to their spots as they talked:

"See? I told you Lynn was unbearable!" Margo growled. "I swear, she does it on purpose! I just wish her dang ego fell to pieces so she can get humbled!"

Paige turned back to enemy team, and glared at Lynn as she answered, with a stern tone:

"That can be arranged."

 _ **Meanwhile, back with Lucy...**_

The girl woke up in the middle of a pitch black void, with nothing else besides her own existence occupying the empty... place? Plane? It was hard to say what it was, really.

"Hello?"

No response.

"Anybody here?"

Same result, at least until some malicious laughter was heard in the distance. The laughter continued as Lucy followed it, walking alongside the seemingly non-existant floor.

The laughter grew more demented as Lucy got a slightly closer look at the figure in the horizon. And then she stopped, just as the figure started walking towards her.

But what shocked the girl the most, was that the figure looked like a clone of her, but nearly completely white except for her eyes, which had dark sclera and yellow irises.

"About time you paid me a visit," the white Lucy clone said with a reverb effect, folding her arms. "I figured you'd come as soon as you were pancaked. Guess I was wrong."

Lucy took a step back. "Who... who are you?"

The clone chuckled, then snapped her fingers, causing Lucy to slowly be covered in black matter as they answered:

"I'm you, Lucille. Or more specifically..."

The clone crouched down, smirking as she finished:

"Who you will become."

The girl immediately woke up right afterwards, feeling relieved at the sight of the train.

And then she saw Leni looking at her with worry. "Is something the matter, Lucy?"

"I had some sort of... dream, I think," Lucy answered, scratching her head. "And in that dream, I was in a void, and then I met... another version of myself, I think?"

Leni hummed, scratching her chin. "That might have something to do with your current state of being."

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "State of being?"

"Lucy, ever since the hydra incident, you've been, like, stuck in a state between life and death," Leni explained with a surprisingly calm tone. "Not fully alive, and yet not fully dead. This kind of paradoxic existence brings some side-effects, and alternate versions of yourself is one of them."

"What? That doesn't make any sense!" Lucy pointed out. "I may not be alive or dead, but what does that have to do with the other me I saw?"

"Elementary, my sweet Lucy," Leni rested her chin on her palm. "Many things can happen when someone meddles with the cycle of life and death."

Leni generated some illusions: First, a small figure of a zombie.

"You could be brought back wrong, as a mindless drone, turning you into a Zombie."

Then she created a small figure of an angry being.

"You could will yourself back to life, without even realizing it, by using your unyielding rage, turning you into a Revenant."

Finally, she made a small figure of a sad zombie with strings attached ot it.

"Or your very being could be brought back, with the catch being that you have no will of your own. I like to call this type, the Doll."

Leni clasped her hand and crushed the illusions back into nothing as she said:

"The chances of that stuff happening, are increased when in a state such as yours. A state between life and death."

Then, the train suddenly stopped, with the girls clinging to the table as Great Grandma Harriet said through a speaker:

"We've arrived at our destination. All passengers, please leave the train immediately, and remember to take any belongings you brought with you."

With that said, the girls left the train, with Lucy paying a little visit to the conductor.

"Thanks for the trip, Great Grandma Harriet," Lucy told the conductor, then hesitated. "You're the Great Grandma Harriet from my dimension, right?"

"Yeah, that's me," Harriet sighed sadly. "Although, I wouldn't be surprised if you started getting doubts once you step outside."

The goth raised an eyebrow and bid farewell. She stepped out of the train... and what she saw caught her off-guard: Leni stood in some cloud-like floor, with several structures built with the same material floating around.

And Lucy and Leni weren't alone: There were several other people nearby with rings above their heads, either sitting on the structures, on the floor, or just looking around. Lucy recognized some of them, like a Rocky, Haiku, and so on, but the rest were total strangers.

"This is what, like, I wanted to show you, Lucy," Leni folded her arms. "We're currently in the Dimensional Purgatory which, despite existing in our dimension, serves as the plane where the deceased people from all around the universe go to for one last trial."

Lucy took a look at her surroundings, too shocked at what she was looking at for words. Then, she looked up, and saw two portals: One white, one black, both sealed off with... orange chains.

"I see you noticed the portals to Heaven and Hell," Leni remarked, looking at the sealed portals as Lucy walked to her side. "The white one leads to Heaven, the black one leads to Hell. After judgement, the spirit goes through the portal to head to their dimension's respective afterlife."

Leni frowned and lowered her head. "But, as you can see, they've been sealed off. Now, the spirits remain here, waiting until they can head to their eternal rest."

"Why... why is it like this?" Lucy asked, turning to Leni before stomping the ground. "Why is the afterlife sealed?!"

"Why do you think things look like this, Lucy?" Leni asked with a serious tone. "What could, like, be so horrible in the afterlife, that the spirits of the deceased would rather hide in purgatory, rather than be judged and move on?"

It didn't take long for Lucy to come to a conclusion: "My counterpart!"

Leni nodded. "Precisely."

 _ **Back at the Volleyball Match...**_

The game between Lynn and Polly against Margo and Paige continued, with the counter still 0 for both sides.

Margo hit the ball over the red towards Polly, but just as she was about to hit, Lynn came out of nowhere and hit it to the other side.

This time, Paige hit the ball directly at Polly, who got ready to hit back before Lynn got in front of her and hit it instead, sending it bouncing back to Margo.

Eventually, this got on the nerves of the audience, especially Tabby.

"Hey, Lynn, let Polly hit the dumb ball!" Tabby shouted at the jock. "You're supposed to be a team! Hit it together!"

Giggles patted the girl's back. "Calm down, Tabby, getting angry won't help anybody."

"That said, Lynn's not letting Polly get a single chance to hit the ball," Carol remarked with slight worry. "Is that normal for her?"

"Yeah, that's classic Lynn right there," Lori answered, shaking her head with a bemused smile. "She'll literally do anything to win, even if she has to play by herself."

Carol turned back to the game with that in mind, and surely enough, the rest of the game was basically Lynn versus Margo and Paige, with Polly barely able to contribute to the game at hand.

Things looked like they would remain a stalemate until Paige spotted something through the window: The cloaked figure she called for help in Atlantis, standing outside, and looking strictly at her.

This caused Paige to lose her concentration, and also the ball, scoring a point for Lynn and... okay, just Lynn.

"Paige, why didn't you-!?" Margo snapped, only to notice the cloaked figure and feel a shiver go down her spine. "Oh... that..."

Paige narrowed her eyes. "What is she doing here? I'm pretty sure she would've left as soon as she broke the shield."

"It doesn't look like they're doing, besides staring at us," Margo walked to Paige's side. "Still, do you want me to call a time-out so you can deal with them?"

Paige thought about it... then said. "No, don't worry. As long as she stays there and does nothing else, it doesn't bother me. Let's keep playing."

Paige went back to her position as Margo went to get the ball. The girl then took a deep breath and turned back to the cloaked figure, who continued looking at strictly her, even as Paige turned back to focus on the game at hand.

 _ **Meanwhile, at Purgatory...**_

Lucy and Leni sat on a table, the former looking worried as she continued looking at her surroundings.

"The afterlife was locked so that your counterpart couldn't gain control of it," Leni sighed before gaining a smile. "So, if you, like, defeat or kill your counterpart, the seal should weaken enough to break."

Lucy frowned. "Why was it locked?"

"The afterlife was locked so that your counterpart couldn't gain control of it," Leni sighed before gaining a smile. "Therefore, if you, like, defeat or kill your counterpart, the seal should weaken enough to break."

Leni's smile faltered. "But it'll, like, still be up to you to unlock the afterlife itself, Lucy."

The goth's eyes widened in shock as the fashionista finished, "It's your domain, after all."

Lucy lowered her head and frowned, feeling a chill go down her spine. "My... domain?"

"Yeah, you and Lynn, like, have control over death and life respectively," Leni answered, brushing Lucy's hair. "I know it sounds like a hassle, but trust me, I know you'll be able to control it just fine."

Lucy's frowning remained unfazed, prompting Leni to get up. "Anyway, there's nothing else to see here. Let's go back home-"

"Leni, before we leave, tell me," Lucy clasped her hands. "Who... sealed the afterlife?"

Leni fell silent, and grabbed Lucy's hand, dragging her to the train as the goth was left wondering who has sealed the afterlife...

Although, she did have an idea on who had done it.

 _ **Back at the Volleyball Game...**_

Lynn, Paige, and Margo caught their breath, while Polly sternly glared at Lynn, clearly exasperated.

"I'm impressed," Lynn said with a smile. "You two make a good team."

"I wish I could say the same," Margo replied. "But sadly, Lynn, you're the only one who's played so far."

"Yeah, Polly hasn't even managed to touch the ball yet," Paige sighed. "Don't you think you should give her a chance, Lynn?"

"And let her lose the game? Sorry, that's not going to happen," Lynn smirked. "And if it does, you have to get through me!"

Carol raised an eyebrow while Lori narrowed her eyes, and Margo gritted her teeth and hit the ball, resuming the match.

Things played the same as before: Lynn practically played alone against Margo and Paige, while Polly barely got to do anything.

Then, just as Lynn hit the ball again, Polly tried tackling her, only to be pushed aside as Margo hit the ball back, with Polly clashing with Lynn as the jock successfully hit it.

"Polly, what are you doing!?" Lynn snapped.

"I'm not going to let you carry this thing on your own, Lynn!" Polly growled in return. "We're a team! We're supposed to play together!"

"It doesn't matter if we're a team or not, Polly!" Lynn growled, her eyes glowing red. "What matters is that we win! And the only way to do that-!"

Lynn pushed Polly away and jumped as Paige hit the ball and threw it. Then, with her arms wreathed in flame, Lynn jumped up high and charged her strike as she exclaimed:

"Is by carrying the game on my own!"

With that said, Lynn smacked the ball so hard, the thing flew past both Margo and Paige until it hit the wall, turning it back into the Bun-Bun.

With that, the game was set and Lynn landed on the ground, with her arms slightly scarred and burnt.

However, the girl didn't seem to notice as she casually walked to Polly and extended her hand towards her.

"Hey, cheer up, Polly," Lynn said. "We won!"

Polly, however, slapped the hand away, shocking everybody.

" _We_ won?! What do you mean _we_ won?!" Polly snapped, stomping the ground. "I barely got to do anything! You kept stealing my chance to hit the ball!"

"Well, I couldn't risk you messing it up or something!" Lynn replied, folding her arms. "Margo could've won!"

"This was a _friendly_ game, Lynn!" Polly hissed, narrowing her eyes as she was surrounded by a fiery aura. "It didn't matter who won in the end, as long as we had fun!"

"That's the thinking that invites failure to your doorstep!" Lynn growled in return, bathing in the same aura. "A type of thinking I just can't allow!"

"Um, could you two calm down a bit?" Giggles requested, briefly glancing at the floor with worry. "You're burning the floor."

The girls' auras dissipated as they turned to Giggles, and asked, "What kind of saying is that?"

"That's not a saying," Tabby casually answered, pointing at the ground. "You're literally burning the floor."

The athletes looked down at their feet, and saw they were standing in a burnt spot the size of their auras. Polly quickly calmed down, dissipating her aura, and asked sternly:

"Why did you invite me to play if you weren't going to let me... well, play!?"

"I can't play a volleyball match with an uneven team, that wouldn't be fair!" Lynn shrugged. "Listen, let's do something: Next friendly game we have with Margo, I'll let you hit the ball."

Polly narrowed her eyes. "For the whole game?"

Lynn smiled sheepishly. "For most of the game-"

"For the whole game, or no deal, Lynn!" Polly snapped, stomping the ground. "You can't add me to the "team" and expect me to let _you_ do all the work!"

"Polly has a point there, Lynn," Carol remarked, getting the jock's attention. "You and Polly are a team, you're supposed to be working together."

"After all, teamwork can make quite the difference in a situation one couldn't face alone," Lori sternly added. "I mean, did you literally forget everything you learned from the tag team training matches?"

"No, I haven't, but that was training to fight against the progenitors, and this is just a little game: There's no risk to my life here!" Lynn growled in response before turning to Polly. "And you, I know the whole team schtik, but you can't tell me you won't stand still and let me do everything when that's exactly what you just did!"

Giggles and Tabby got off the stands, the latter stomping her way to the jock while the former got between the two, trying to keep distance between the two.

"She would've contributed if you had let her do it!" Tabby hissed straight to Lynn's face. "Is it so hard for you to let her hit the stupid ball once!?"

"I already said it was too risky!" Lynn snapped back. "I mean, think about it: If I can't win a stupid little game, how will I be able to deal with the progenitors when the time comes!?"

Carol, angered by what the jock implied, stood up and tried to walk to her, but she was stopped by Lori, who grabbed her by the neck of her shirt and pointed at Polly, who was leaving the building.

Carol ran up to Polly and stopped her. "Polly, I know you must be upset, but-"

"But what? What could you tell me that could cheer me up right now?" Polly growled. "One of the few friends I have keeps acting like she's the only one who can win the game, like she's a one-player team, and I'm sick of it!"

"Look, take a deep breath and think about this a little bit more," Carol said with a nervous smile. "What are you even planning to do?"

"Quit," Polly lowered her head. "I'm going to quit playing with Lynn. I've had enough of her attitude, and I can't take it anymore."

With that said, Polly continued walking as a somber Carol watched her and said "Polly" with a sympathetic tone.

And she didn't notice the cloaked figure watching her, either.

With that scene over, the cloaked figure crouched down, then jumped with as much power as she could muster, sending her straight into the clouds. She jumped the clouds for a while until she gathered enough energy, allowing her to dive from the clouds and fall until she was surrounded by pink energy, whisking her out of existence before hitting the ground.

Soon after, the figure landed in a darkened place and bowed down, towards the large shadowy figure looming over her. up

"I've returned, Your Lovelyness," the cloaked figure said as it bowed down. "And I have news concerning the Love known as Polly."

The shadowy figure opened its eyes, revealing hot pink sclera and heart-shaped pupils as she said:

"I'm all ears."

 ** _Back at the Loud Backyard..._**

Lucy and Leni left the train, and the afterlife train rode away soon after, Lucy and Leni waving goodbye as it left.

"By the way, Lucy?" Leni asked, getting the goth's attention. "There's something I need to teach you."

"Oh really?" Lucy raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

Leni smiled, and next thing the duo knew, Lucy sat close to the tree while Leni stood a couple feet away from it, saying:

"First, you need to have your palm open like this."

Leni opened her palm.

"Now, you must charge energy in it, and shape it like a ball."

Leni charged her energy, which manifested as a glowing... thing, before she closed her eyes and turned it into a ball with her mind.

"Then, you go back, then run..."

The fashionista backed away and moved her hand a little back, before she ran towards the tree.

"And then yell this: Hikari!"

Leni stopped short from the tree, and pulled her hand forward, with the sphere imploding into a bigger form before dissipating out of existence.

"And that's how it's done," Leni stated, rubbing her palm. "Now, you try it."

Lucy hesitantly went to Leni's previous spot and repeated her instructions: Open palm, charge energy, morph it into a ball, go back and get ready to charge at the objective.

However, for some reason, the goth girl hesitated. Maybe it was the fact that she still needed to process what she found out about the afterlife, or that she was practicing some bizarre power mere moments after said revelation.

However, after seeing Leni looking at her with a reassuring look, and a thumbs up, Lucy took a deep breath and ran towards the tree.

And once she was close enough, she pulled her arm forward and exclaimed:

"Hikari!"

The sphere's reuslting implosion into a bigger sphere was much bigger, to the point it engulfed the tree. And instead of dissipating, it blew up, sending Lucy flying off into a wall, and leaving a large crater where the tree used to be.

Leni? She casually stood up and clapped with a smile on her face.

"Very impressive, Lucy," Leni remarked as she walked to the girl and helped her get up. "Your "Hikari" was, like, much stronger than mine."

"But, wait, aren't you stronger than me, Leni?" Lucy inquired as she dusted herself. "Why would my Hikari be stronger than yours, then?"

Leni chuckled and patted the goth girl's hair, before she walked to the door, arms folded behind her back.

"Leni?" Lucy suddenly asked, getting the fashionista's attention. "Can I ask you something?"

"The tree, right?" Leni guessed. "Don't worry, I'll, like, fix it later."

"No, that's not what I want to ask you," Lucy frowned. "I wanted to ask you... if you think I'll be a better matriarch, or successor, or whatever I'm supposed to be?"

"I'm sure you will, Lucy," Leni answered. "I mean, you're already a much better reaper than your counterpart could ever hope to be."

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "How?"

With an unfaltering smile, Leni answered, "You're not, like, killing everything in sight during a temper tantrum."

With that morbid statement, Leni left, leaving Lucy alone to think about what she was just taught.

"Hikari, huh?"

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Hi everybody, Lincoln here!"

The preview began with a scene at the organization, where the

"Clyde and Ronnie Anne called me and told me to come to the McBride's backyard, and I'm currently right there."

The scene changed to show Lincoln with Clyde and Ronnie Anne at the McBride's backyard, as previously said.

"So, Ronnie Anne, Clyde, what did you want to talk to me about?"

The trio talked for a bit as Lincoln said the next:

"Your relationship's been improving? I'm glad to hear that... wait, what?"

The scene changed to show Lori talking with Luna and Luan at the park.

"Wait, you're really planning on doing your rematch now?!"

The scene changed again, this time showing Lori talking with some of the Sadie Hawkins Dates nearby. Tabby wasn't there, for some reason.

"Come on, guys, do you really think beating each other up is going to help you bond?!"

Lori charged some energy in front of the dates and shot it at a tree, with the resulting effect not shown, only the dates' horrified reactions and Lori's threatening smile.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

The scene then cut to Maggie's house, where the emo goth looked at the ceiling before she covered her face with her hands. And shortly after that, Sam kicked the door open, looking particularly cheerful.

" _Luan and Luna's Shocking Training! Clyde and Ronnie Anne's Long-Awaited Rematch!_ "

The scene changed again, this time back at the organization, with Mrs. Loud angrily grabbing Mrs. Santiago by the neck of her shirt and yelling at her:

"Don't miss it!"

The final scene depicted Clyde, Lincoln, and Ronnie Anne looking both surprised and confused, and then hearing Lincoln's phone ring...


	32. Shocking Rematch

**Okay, this is the part where the arc actually starts, and how fitting it is that the beginning of the arc is where things start going wrong.**

 **Now, I'm not going to lie to you, for the most part, this might seem like yet another filler chapter. But trust me, from this point onwards, things are going to get intense. Or at the very least, interesting.**

 **Also, since you're all probably wondering what the heck's been taking this story so long: I don't have the luxury of being able to write over a thousand or two thousand words a day like last year, and my co-writer A Hopeful Observer has school, so again, because I believe I've said this before, updates on this story are going to take a while.**

 **In the meantime however, I got plenty of one-shots for you to read, as well as at least another Loud House story, Lux-Umbra Magna Auguratricis. Check those out while you wait for the next update, I assure you it'll be worth the wait.**

 **I'll ask A Hopeful Observer over what I should do with this arc, and whether I'll update it on my own, or if he believes he can help me with it. Honestly, I would like to update it on my own and be done with it, so they can focus on their studies without worry, but I want to get their opinion first.**

 **Now, let's answer some reviews:**

 **1) ChernoMan:**

 *** To be fair, with the progenitors, you have to be very careful.**

 *** Nice?**

 *** This entire universe is messed up, you'll have to get used to it, bud.**

 *** Plus Ultra!**

 *** Insert rimshot here.**

 *** Lana also had one in the Crystal Leviathan omake, I think. But they all do, it's just that we haven't seen all of them yet.**

 *** It'll be interesting, you'll see.**

 **2) Nobody245:**

 *** Don't get used to it, Leni just decided to get off her lazy butt and do some work for once. As for the other part of your question... anything could happen.**

 *** Yes and no. I mean, I do have one quick example in upcoming chapters, but I'm not sure if we'll tackle all of them.**

 *** By next arc, do you mean the Proto-Lily arc? If so, well, the "Caste Examination" sidestory implies they have a bigger purpose for Lily, so... think about that.**

 **3) Observant Guest:**

 *** Yeah, I mean just look at Dragon Ball Super: Potara fusion being used by the villains isn't something they likely expected. Okay, some probably did, but most maybe didn't.**

 *** I like to think that Rocky and Silas, being the only multiple love interests for Lucy, would at least try to get a bit along so as to not get on Lucy's nerves. After all, she's got a lot of things up on her head at the moment, having to choose which boys she likes is only going to stress her even further. XD**

 *** They use the theme in those games?!**

 *** I'm sure I said only Proto-Lucy would get control of the afterlife, but still, that doesn't change the fact it's a scary thought.**

 *** Right, Edo Tensei. Forgot about that, to be honest. XD**

 *** Troubled Realm certainly sounds like it'd fit the purgatory of this universe. Upbeat, yet ominous, I like it.**

 *** Oh trust me, if Cristina's on the scene, revelations are going to happen.**

 *** You'll get your answers now, buddy. :)**

 *** While I'm at it, how about I suggest some soundtracks from Madoka Magica for you to listen, either while reading the next few chapters or just in general? In particular, I think Nocte of Desperation, Symposium Magarum, Short Action, Credens Justitiam, and Misterioso would be good to listen to.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 32: Luan and Luna's Shocking Training! Clyde and Ronnie Anne's Long-Awaited Rematch!**

* * *

 _ **The Organization, Meeting Room...**_

Several agents had gathered: Mr. and Mrs. Loud, Harold, Howard, the teacher trio, Becky, Pacowski, and even the previously missing Principal Higgins was there, which got everybody's attention.

"So, you did come, Principal Higgins?" Becky sternly asked. "What were you doing all this time?"

"Working on a little personal project," Higgins answered with a confident smile. "One that I believe will help us take a more active role in the fight, eventually."

"And what about the school project?" Mrs. Johnson asked, making the man flinch. "You know, the main reason the school was closed in the first place?"

"That issue will be taken care of eventually."

Everybody turned around and saw the monitor light up, then move to face each of them before turning back to the middle. It then lowered itself a bit before saying:

"Greetings, agents of the Royal Woods Defense Forces."

"Is that the first time the boss has referred to this place by its actual name?" Mrs. DiMartino whispered to Rita. "I feel like they've just been referring it as "the organization" for a while now."

"I think so," Rita whispered back. "But let's try not to catch their attention."

"Now, I inquire, how are the lovechildren Leia and Lizy doing?" the monitor asked. "Have they revealed any details on the progenitors' secret plan yet?"

"No, we've tried nearly everything, but they refuse to say anything," Mrs. DiMartino said.

"Have you tried letting Becky take care of that?" the monitor bluntly inquired. "According to the analysis, Becky has the most effective information-gathering performance among the agents, having a 98 percent success rate."

Becky proudly put her hands on her hips and grinned as Mrs. Johnson said, "With all honesty, chief, if we had let Becky take care of the interrogation of the twins, it's far too likely that she would've broken them apart in the process of extracting the information."

The redhead flinched as her sister continued, "After all, being in charge of the correctional facility, Becky's grown to become as aggressive as possible in order to subjugate the inmates in said facility."

Johnson glared at Becky as she finished with, "Considering that the interrogation can lead to physical measures, shown by the twins' reluctance to cooperate, Becky's actions could traumatize the lovechildren, leaving them, at best, too scared to cooperate, or at worst, utterly catatonic."

Becky lowered her head and frowned. "W-Well... I do tend to go a bit overboard when dealing with the inmates..."

"Understood, I'll be sure to keep that in mind in future analysis," the monitor stated. "Now, onto the next matter, you all know the risk of keeping the lovechildren here, right?"

A pregnant silence filled the room, until Mr. Loud said, "Uh, as chain breakers, they're part of the progenitor armada, right?"

"Precisely, Mr. Loud, and though the lovechildren are all incredibly low-ranking members of said armada, the progenitors still detest having their minions taken away from them," the monitor explained. "As such, the organization's defenses must be upgraded right away, to prepare in case of a progenitor attack."

"Yes sir!"

The agents dispersed and went to do their own things, with the Loud and McBride parents walking together to their offices.

"So, Rita, Lynn," Harold said, getting the Loud parents' attention. "Did you manage to gather the blood necessary to craft your weapons?"

"I'm happy to say we did get enough blood to do that," Rita cheerfully answered. "Who knew those corrupted creatures could bleed a ton of blood? Anyway, they're being crafted as we speak, and once they're finished, we're planning to go to the training sector in order to test them out."

"Well, that's good to know," Harold sighed. "As long as we get another means of combating the progenitors, it's fine. Although, I can't help but fear that the blood of the corrupted creatures may not be enough to take care of them."

"We're taking baby steps, guys, it's the only thing we can do for now," Lynn Sr. replied. "Anyway, how are you doing with Mrs. Santiago's project? It was a collar, right?"

Harold and Howard exchanged concerned looks, then nodded, prompting Rita to ask, "What's that thing for, anyway?"

The parents once again exchanged worried looks, and they hesitated before whispering the answer to the parents, who reacted with utter shock.

 ** _Mrs. Santiago's Office..._**

Maria was checking some chemicals on her desk when Rita kicked the door open and barged in, punching the nurse in the face right as her husband and the McBride parents entered.

"What the hell were you thinking, Maria!?" Rita snapped at the nurse as she grabbed her by the neck of her uniform and pulled her closer to her face. "Why would you subject your daughter to something like that!?"

"Rita, please, calm down!" Lynn Sr. told his wife as he ran to her side. "If you and Mrs. Santiago start fighting, we might get in trouble!"

"This _bitch_ is already in a big heap of trouble!" Rita snapped at her husband, before turning back to the nurse. "It would be one thing to use your daughter for your experiments!"

Rita hesitated, held back tears, and shouted:

"But why use her to test out a mind control collar!?"

Maria slapped Rita away, catching her breath as she answered:

"She's not the one the collar's designed for, okay!?"

The parents looked at Maria with shock as the nurse added:

"It's for Lincoln. Or more accurately, his evil side."

Rita and Lynn Sr. raised an eyebrow, prompting the woman to explain:

"The Lincoln that you know, that's been living with you all this time, is just one piece of the original progenitor known as Lincoln."

Maria folded her arms behind her back as she explained further:

"When the old reality was being corrupted beyond repair, and when even he started succumbing to the corruption itself, he did two things: The first was to give birth to a set of children that would later be known as the successors, or the Neo-Sisters, Loud Sisters, whatever you wanna call them."

Maria frowned and lowered her head.

"The next thing he did was mentally split into two beings: The Lincoln that you know and love, which is what little goodness remained from him, and another Lincoln that resembled him the most, who represented the corruption that was taking control of him at the time."

Then she narrowed her eyes.

"However, like a million other things, he didn't think clearly enough as he did this: So, instead of his good half, our Lincoln, being the one to gain his powers, it was his corrupted side that got them. And this side, mind you, is the very embodiment of all his flaws, but increased tenfold!"

The parents lowered their heads and frowned as the nurse continued:

"So, if he ever managed to take control of the body, then it would be an instant game over for all of us: The progenitors, the reality, all of the multiverse would be doomed! So, in order to not be completely helpless against him, I've been working on the collar along with the McBrides in order to at least have the option to mind control him if he ever went loose, or even if the need of mind control suddenly appeared. But we've been doing it in phases."

The Loud parents raised an eyebrow. "Phases?"

"Phase one involves determining whether the collar can work at an exact time," Harold explained somberly. "The phase was deemed successful, so we went to the next phase."

"The next phase is supposed to involve the mind control itself," Howard said. "However, it's more of a testing phase, to make some adjustments so that both the weak willed and the strong willed can be controlled. After all, if the evil side turns out to be strong willed, then the whole plan would go down the drain."

"And once that phase was down, we would go into phase three, which involves upgrading the collar to give it better defense, durability, all that stuff," Maria continued. "Once those three phases are done, we'd have an object capable of allowing us to control anybody that could be considered a threat, or at the very least, the evil Lincoln himself."

And then the speakers on the phone spoke:

" _Mr. and Mrs. Loud, please head to the testing chamber. Repeat, Mr. and Mrs. Loud, please head to the testing chamber._ "

"Huh? That's weird, they don't usually call us this early," Lynn Sr. asked. "And why would we need to go there anyway?"

"Maybe they want you to test the weapons you were talking about?" Harold suggested.

"How are we going to test them if we don't even know if they're finished yet?" Rita pointed out. "Anyway, let's get going. Whatever they want us to do, it's probably important."

The parents nodded and the guys left, while Rita remained behind and glared at Maria for a moment, prompting the nurse to reply:

"I know what you're thinking, Rita, but you're wrong. I'm not like the rest of my caste: I don't see my daughter as some sort of puppet for my experiments. I just-"

"You wanted to punish her for running away, and you thought the collar was a good idea?" Rita finished, startling the nurse. "It's one thing to want to teach your child a lesson. It's another thing to go overboard and potentially endanger their live just to try and kill a bird with two stones."

Having spoken her mind, Rita left the office, leaving Mrs. Santiago to clench her fists and hit the wall in anger, shouting:

" _Of all the people who could've scolded me, why did it have to be the one with no experience in the matter!?_ "

 ** _Meanwhile, at the Royal Woods park..._**

Lori, Luna, and Luan relaxed at the park, with Lori stretching a bit while Luna and Luan sat on a bench. Haiku, Polly, and Giggles were also nearby, but the sisters didn't pay attention to them.

"Okay," Lori said before turning to her sisters. "Are you girls literally ready to train?"

"Sure, but first," Luna looked around. "Where's Carol?"

"She's going to go with Leni to help the twins with a little test they have to go through," Lori cracked her knuckles. "So, for the time being, I'm going to be the one teaching you how to channel and use your powers."

Luna frowned and turned to the three-fourth of the Sadie Hawkins dates' location, which soon caught Lori's attention. "Is something the matter?"

"Well, remember when we talked about your teaching methods yesterday, and you said you were used to tough love?" Luna pointed at the girls and nevously smiled. "I'm worried some of that love might hit our friends over there."

"But, Luna, your friend's literally not there," the eldest sister stated, earning a "huh?" from the rockstar. "I can see Luan's, Lynn's, and Lucy's, but not yours."

"S-Still, they could get hurt, you know?!" Luna put a hand in Luan's shoulder. "And besides, while my friend may not be present, Luan's is! I'm sure she's worried for her safety too, right?"

The comedian looked at the sky and scratched her chin. "Well, Giggles went through training to become more flexible and durable for clown jokes, but I don't think that would be enough to survive something as extreme as a battle..."

"What about when the hydra attacked?" Lori asked, raising an eyebrow. "She faced it with the other dates, right?"

"I don't recall seeing her getting hit anywhere," Luan answered. "Still, I don't think she'd be able to handle pain very well."

Lori sighed. "Alright, I'll go talk with them."

Luna and Luan sighed in relief, but for Luna, that relief stopped as soon as Lori walked up to her and leaned closer to her ear.

"I know eactly why you brought up the dates, and let me be honest with you: The sooner you get rid of this nervous side of yours, the better," Lori whispered. "You wanna know why?"

Luna gulped. "W-Why?"

Lori's eyes started glowing a foam green color as she answered, with a layered voice:

"Because there's a sadistic, uncaring being controlling me, and I can only fight her off for so long before she takes me over. And when she does, nothing you can do will appease her: She can't be bribed, she can't be tamed, and most importantly, she can't be reasoned with."

Lori tightened her grip. "So stop bring a coward and grow some damn balls!"

The eldest sister turned back to normal and continued walking to the dates, leaving a shivering Luna and Luan behind.

"I don't know what's worse," Luan said. "The fact that Lori seemed like a completely different person, or the fact that I heard everything she said."

As for Lori, the eldest sister crashed in the girls' business, immediately getting their attention. "Hello there!"

"Oh hey, you're Luan's eldest sister, right?" Giggles asked, tilting her head. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm covering for Carol while she's preparing to help the twins with their last test, and Leni's having a beauty sleep or something," Lori explained, folding her arms. "So, I'm literally training Luna and Luan today."

Polly narrowed her eyes. "What about Lynn?"

While she kept her smile, Lori couldn't help but pause as she sensed a heavy atmosphere from the girl. "She didn't come with us-"

Polly sternly interjected. "Good."

"And what about Lucy? Did she come?" Haiku asked, only to scratch her chin as she added. "Come to think of it, what about all of the other sisters and Lincoln? Aren't you going to train them too?"

"Hey, we're taking this stuff literally one step at a time, okay?!" Lori clarified nervously. "Anyway, I came here in order to tell you that Luna's worried that you might get hurt from the ensuing battle, so I want you to literally go somewhere a little farther away from here."

"Huh, weird, I didn't think she would be the type to worry about it," Giggles remarked, putting a hand on her hip. "Anyway, we're waiting for Tabby to arrive. Once she does, we'll get out of here."

Lori narrowed her eyes, while maintaining her smile. "Actually, I'm going to start the lesson, like, literally soon, so I need you to get out now."

"Wait, which is your verbal thing: the like, or the literally?" Giggles innocently asked, making Lori flinch and blush as she realized what she said. "Luan told me that Leni's the one who often says "Like" while you go for "Literally" instead."

Lori blushed a bit harder. "Y-Yeah, I sometimes mess up and use Leni's tic alongside my own... but anyway, I still need you to leave now!"

"Pst, it's a training match," Haiku scoffed, shaking her head and shrugging her head. "How bad could it be?"

Polly and Giggles flinched and gasped at Haiku's nonchalance, while Lori tried really hard to keep her smile in place as it looked like she was about to blow a blood vessel. So, she decided to show Haiku a little taste of what was to come:

She charged a little sphere of lighting, then, while keeping her sight firmly on the girls, she shot it at a nearby tree, with the resulting explosion utterly pulverizing the tree and a couple more nearby it as a roaring thunder noise came from it.

The resulting crater had electricity surging from it for a little while before dissipating, and the girls took a moment to realize they were hugging each other for safety, just in time for Lori to cheerfully point out:

"And that's not even my full power, kids."

The girls immediately ran away, and Lori dusted herself with a sense of fulfillment before she walked back to Luna and Luan...

And then she saw they were hugging each other as well.

"U-Um," Lori hesitated. "D-Did you see what I did, too?"

The sisters nodded violently, and it was obvious that training would have to be postponed until they calmed down. Which they did... a couple hours later.

The girls were sitting on a bench, Lori in the middle with Luna and Luan by her left and right respectively. The former looked at the sky with a contemplative look, while the latter looked at her phone with a concerned look, which caught the eldest sister's attention.

"What's wrong, Luan?" Lori asked, folding her arms. "Are you still scared because of what I did a while ago? If so-"

"No, that's not it," Luan answered, glancing back at her phone as she added, "I just got a message from Maggie, and..."

Luna put a hand on Luan's shoulder. "What is it? If something's bothering you about the message, tell us what it is, and we'll see what we can do to help."

The rockstar threw a smile at Luan as the comedian turned to Lori, who smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Well, you see..."

 ** _Meanwhile, at the McBride's backyard..._**

Lincoln walked into the backyard, where he was greeted by Clyde and Ronnie Anne, the former with his arms folded behind his back while the latter leaned against the fence.

"Hi Lame-O!" Ronnie Anne chirped, waving hello as hard as she could.

"We were waiting for you," Clyde said, gaining a smile.

"Yeah, I know, I tried to get here as fast as I could since I was worried you were going to beat each other up if you waited too long," Lincoln replied as he walked to the duo. "Luckily, though, it seems you were able to stay friendly."

"Well, I did promise you to try and deepen our bond or whatever, didn't I, Lame-O?" Ronnie Anne replied, waving her hand in a dismissive manner. "As long as Nerd-O over here cooperates with me, you got nothing to worry about!"

"I think it would be better if you waited until we can actually speak like friends before you say that, Ronnie Anne," Clyde said that, keeping his smile as he said so. "Anyway, I'm sure you're wondering why we called you here, Lincoln?"

Lincoln scratched the back of his head. "Actually, yeah, you did just call me without giving me a real reason as to why."

"Well, the truth is-" Clyde started.

"We thought we should settle the score between us since the tag team training thing, and we want you to be the referee!" Ronnie Anne cheerfully interjected.

Lincoln blinked twice. "Come again?"

"Okay, so, remember how before the whole beach fiasco, Nerd-O here and I fought, and he won by a technicality," Ronnie Anne explained, pounding her chest as she added, "However, as a Santiago, I refuse to let this hit at my pride remain! And so, I demand a rematch!"

"Clyde, are you okay with this?" Lincoln asked the guy. "I mean, I'd rather have you two be friends and not-"

"It's okay, Lincoln, it's just a friendly match between us, nothing serious," Clyde answered, adjusting his glasses as he added with a little smile, "And besides, there's something I've been meaning to try out lately."

"Hmm... I got it!" Lincoln remarked, getting his friends' attention. "While Clyde fights in a more physical manner, you will fight using a more methodical or analytical manner, right Ronnie Anne?"

"Lame-O, please, one seemingly impossible task at a time," Ronnie Anne replied, waving her hand. "No, we're both going to fight physically, and you'll act as the referee just in case one of us almost goes too far."

"Oh, I see, that makes more sense, I guess," Lincoln scratched the back of his head as he walked to the fence. "So, I guess I'll stay here at the sidelines."

"Yeah, please do, we don't want you to get caught in the crossfire," Clyde said as he walked to the side opposite to Ronnie Anne's extreme. "Especially because this fight might get a little crazy."

Clyde smiled with confidence, and as Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow and smiled with amusement, the guy clenched his fists and proclaimed:

"Savinoken!"

The dark-skinned geek was enveloped in an orange, fiery aura, surprising Lincoln and Ronnie Anne in the process. However, while Lincoln was shocked in general, Ronnie Anne's shock seemed to be mixed with excitement as well.

"Hey, isn't that the power up Lame-O's evil self and Carol used against Mud-O's evil copycat?" Ronnie Anne asked, earning a confused look from Lincoln. "You remember that, right, Lame-O?"

"No, I don't remember that at all!" Lincoln answered, scratching his head as he turned back to Clyde. "Why... when did you have time to learn that stuff?!"

"Well, once the whole deal at the beach was over, there were a lot of things that caught my interest, and this was one of them," Clyde explained, cracking his knuckles. "So, I asked Carol if she could teach me how to do it, and she gave me a quick lesson about it."

Lincoln narrowed his eyes. "For real!?"

"Ohoho, Nerd-O, you cheeky jerk," Ronnie Anne folded her arms. "No offense, but the fact you have to use a power up when I'm not even using any of my power says a lot about your chances of winning this fight."

"Perhaps," Clyde crouched down. "But we won't know until we clash!"

Clyde and Ronnie Anne dashed towards each other and clashed elbows, sending a shock wave as they began fighting, leaving Lincoln to watch in disbelief as he thought:

" _What did I get myself into?_ "

 ** _Maggie's House, Maggie's Bedroom..._**

The emo teenage girl rested on her bed, looking at the ceiling as she thought about what she would do today. Or, more accurately, what would happen today: Luan was supposed to come to her house, so Maggie could help her with her difficulty sleeping at night.

At least, that's what Maggie thought at first: By the time she realized what this could mean, it was too late.

" _How could I be so stupid?! This is a classic Luan joke, I just know it!_ " the teenager blushed and covered her face with her hands. " _I bet the whole thing was just a setup for one of her stupid pranks!_ "

The girl turned to the door and narrowed her eyes. " _As soon as she steps through that door, she'll throw a dozen pies at me or something!_ "

As if on cue, somebody kicked the door open: Sam, sporting a wide, joyful smile. "Hello, Maggie! Your favorite older sister is here!"

" _Now I'd rather have Luan come here and bombard me with pies,_ " Maggie thought as Sam sat next to her. "What do you want, Sam?"

"Tabby has to go to the park to see her friends, so I figured, since I have nothing else to do, I decided to pay you a visit," Sam wrapped her arm around Maggie's shoulder. "You know, older sister and younger sister, spending a good time, together!"

Maggie groaned at the thought.

"So, what would you like to do?" Sam asked before she brushed Maggie's hair. "We could go for an ice cream, or play some games, or maybe we could do something more unorthodox and practice your Swagger lineage techniques-!"

The mere mention of the last part made Maggie's blood boil. Feeling her rage surfacing, the emo pushed Sam aside, stood up, and snapped:

"Why do you have to bring that up all of a sudden!? Have I not been clear with you these past few years!? I want nothing to do with the Swagger side of the family! I'd rather be Luan's comedy partner again, than to ever identify as a Swagger!"

Sam paused, and slowly narrowed her eyes as she stood up, and started unleashing an intimidating aura that turned Maggie's anger into worry.

"Is that why you did it?"

Maggie looked at her surroundings and stammered, "D-Do what?"

"Invite over Luan Loud to your house!" Sam yelled.

Maggie flinched. "H-How did you know?!"

Sam smirked. "So you _did_ do that!"

The emo remained silent for a moment, sweating bullets. Once she got enough courage to reply, she looked elsewhere and said:

"I... I can explain..."

 _ **Back at the McBride's Backyard...**_

Lincoln watched from the ground as Clyde and Ronnie Anne's battle continued in the sky, the girl riding a cloud while Clyde, still using the Savinoken, flew up using his jet-like feet, just like Lisa did sometime ago. He put his arms behind his head and took a deep breath, frowning as the duo started attacking each other:

Ronnie Anne aimed the cloud at Clyde and shot lighting bolts at him, which the boy dodged as he charged his arm cannon. Then, once he got close enough, he aimed his cannon at Ronnie Anne and shot a green energy beam, which Ronnie Anne narrowly dodged before rushing towards Clyde, dragging him for a moment before the boy escaped and he and the tomboy caught their breath.

"I'm surprised you're still in the fight, Nerd-O!" Ronnie Anne remarked. "Although, shouldn't the Savinoken have worn you down by now?"

"It's only been a couple minutes, Ronnie Anne, don't worry," Clyde replied, folding his arms. "I should be able to last at least five more minutes before I'm exhausted!"

Then the dark-skinned geek scratched his head. "I think, anyway, I don't think Carol said how long this can be used before it wears the user down."

And as the fight continued, Lincoln remarked, "Those two have been at it for a while, how long are they planning to keep on fighting?"

"Until one of them dies, I guess."

Lincoln flinched and turned to the source of the voice, which turned out to be a slightly transparent Sincoln, leaning against the fence.

"Sincoln?!" Lincoln said in disbelief. "What are you doing here?! How are you here?!"

"Relax, Junior, I'm not actually here," the malicious Lincoln copycat answered. "I'm just protecting an image of myself in order to talk to you from the outside world. And don't worry about anybody else seeing me, for now, the only one who can see me is you."

"Well, whatever, what do you want?" Lincoln folded his arms. "I'm still angry over what happened at the beach."

"Don't worry, more pressing matters will eventually come to force you to forget about it," Sincoln chuckled. "Anyway, I'm just here to tell you that those two aren't going to stop anytime soon."

Lincoln raised an eyebrow. "How would you know?"

"Junior, I've been alive for millions of years, and in all of those years, I never remained in one dimension for too long, and neither did you. Actually, the two of us constantly went dimension leaping while the new reality was being, well, made," Sincoln explained. "Anyway, there were many things that were constant in those dimensions, and one of them was that whenever a Clyde and a Ronnie Anne met, they would either be neutral, or have a dislike towards the other."

Sincoln looked up. "And while I admit your and their efforts have made them move some steps to the former, I can sense that they're still on the latter phase."

Lincoln looked up as well, where he noticed that Ronnie Anne and Clyde's clash sent them both plummeting to the ground, to the edges of the backyard. Once they got up and the dirt clouds dissipated, however, they only seemed to be minorly bruised.

And, quite surprisingly, Clyde still had the Savinoken active.

"Well, I'll leave it to you to stop them from killing each other," Sincoln said. "Bye, Junior! See ya when you get pissed off!"

Sincoln's image vanished, leaving Lincoln alone to witness the next dialogue:

"Huh, still stand and with the Savinoken? I'm impressed, Nerd-O!" Ronnie Anne said. "But I'm not going to back down now! Not until I win this fight!"

"Oh really? What a surprise," Clyde powered. "Neither am I!"

Ronnie Anne powered up as well, just in time for Lincoln to exclaim, "Guys, cut it out! You could get seriously hurt!"

"How about one last clash?" Ronnie Anne charged her fist with electricity. "Whoever's left standing after the hit, wins!"

Clyde charged his fist with green energy. "Fine by me!"

"Are you even listening to me?!" Lincoln snapped, once again falling in deaf ears. "I told you to stop! You don't need to go this far!"

The dark-skinned boy and the tomboy ran towards each other, prompting Lincoln to narrow his eyes and get in the middle of the clash, spreading his hands at the duo as he exclaimed:

"I said, that's enough!"

Ronnie Anne and Clyde's fists clashed with Lincoln's palms, causing all three of them to get a vision.

In the vision, what could be presumed to be Proto-Lincoln caught Proto-Clyde and Proto-Ronnie Anne's fists, right in the middle of a deserted wasteland, with the sunset over the horizon. And most importantly, the trio got a clear look at how their prototypes looked like:

Proto-Ronnie Anne had crimson hair, a yellow sweatshirt, blue shorts and black sandals.

Proto-Clyde looked mostly the same as Neo-Clyde, but the yellow stripes in his sweater were yellow instead, and rather than wearing glasses, he wore a monocle on his right eye, and a black eyepatch on his left eye.

And Proto-Lincoln? He looked exactly the same as Neo-Lincoln, only difference being he was wearing a long-sleeved white jacket with orange highlights, and a spades symbol on each side.

Just as the prototype geek and tomboy reacted with shock, however, the vision ended, with the whole trio looking perplexed at what just happened as they separated.

"You... you guys saw that too, right?" Lincoln asked. "It wasn't just me?"

"No, I saw that too, Lame-O," Ronnie Anne stated as she powered down. "You, or someone who looked like you, stopped my and Nerd-O's clash."

"And it was in the middle of some deserted wasteland," Clyde remarked as he powered down, and deactivated the Savinoken. "Perhaps, that was a vision of the past?"

"No duh, that's the logical conclusion, Nerd-O," Ronnie Anne folded her arms. "What we need to know right now is what happened that lead to that."

And then, Lincoln's phone rang, getting Clyde and Ronnie Anne's attention as Lincoln took it and answered the call, "Hello?"

"Hi Lincoln, it's me, Lori," said the voice at the other end of the call. "If you, Ronnie Anne, and Clyde are finished with whatever you're doing, could you come to the park? There's something Luan would like to discuss with you."

"Sure, we'll be there right away," Lincoln hung up the phone and turned to the pair. "Lori says Luan wants to talk to us about something."

"But Nerd-O and I didn't finish our fight!" Ronnie Anne pouted, stomping the ground. "And we were so close to it, too!"

"We'll settle this another time, Ronnie Anne," Clyde replied, adjusting his glasses. "Let's go see what Lori wants to talk about, it might be more interesting then settling our fight."

"Don't get my expectations too high, Nerd-O," Ronnie Anne sighed. "Anyway, lead the way, Lame-O, we'll follow you."

The snow-haired boy nodded, and he started walking to the park as Ronnie Anne and Clyde shared a look, before the tomboy suggested:

"So, how about we say I won and call it a day?"

Clyde smiled, put a hand on Ronnie's shoulder, and said with a reassuring tone:

"See you in the next rematch."

The dark-skinned geek followed Lincoln, and after she shook her head and chuckled, Ronnie Anne saved her hands on her pockets and followed the guys.

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Hi everybody, Lincoln here!"

The trio of Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, and Clyde walked down the streets before the scene changed to show the team trying to maintain their balance.

"We're heading to the park, where it seems something has happened! At least, going by that explosion..."

Ronnie Anne whistled and the trio got on top of a cloud, before the scene changed to show Lindsey practicing in her room, then Maggie nervously talking with Sam.

"Luckily, however, it seems everything looks fairly normal everywhere else..."

Then, the scene changed, this time showing the pets and Bun-Bun watching as Lucy and Lynn had a little sparring match.

"Why do I feel like I just jinxed something?"

Another change, and this time the scene showed Tabby reuniting with the rest of the Sadiw Hawkins dates, while the background showed the sky looking very cloudy.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Next, the Mortician's Club-haven't seen them in a while-were shown watching the cloudy sky in the distance as they dug up a skeleton, which seemingly came to life afterwards.

" _The Calm Before the Stormy Weather! An Unexpected Uprising?!_ "

Another figure then appeared: Proto-Luna, who looked at the skeleton with a stern glare as they walked towards her.

"Don't miss it!"

The last shot showed the main trio on Ronnie Anne's cloud, heading closer towards the commotion at the park.


	33. Stormy Weather

**And now we continue where we left off, with things suddenly starting to get intense as we head into the Proto-Lucy arc. And believe, you'll understand what I mean the deeper we get into this arc.**

 **So, I talked with A Hopeful Observer about this story, and we agreed that I should update it while he deals with school in the meantime, as long as I continue sending him any chapters I finish, of course. So, at least for a little while, you'll get to see some action from this story.**

 **This doesn't mean Lux-Umbra Magna Auguratricis is out, though, I'm still gonna work on that story. Most of my work in this arc is finished anyway, so I don't have to put that on hiatus just yet.**

 **Be forewarned, however, that I will take a few breaks at certain points. I have all but two chapters finished, but since some of those chapters are pretty freaking long, I believe a little rest between them is necessary.**

 **How long are they? Well... you'll see it when we get there.**

 **Now, let's answer some reviews!:**

 **1) Nobody245: The first shoe might fall this chapter, actually. And yeah, they might get more active.**

 **2) ChernoMan:**

 *** Well, I had to take some time to finish most of the story too. That could be a reason as well.**

 *** Somebody has to.**

 *** Desperate situations require desperate measures.**

 *** We're talking about the Loud House multiverse.**

 *** Apparently, motherhood.**

 *** Just because we know they're capable of so much more, doesn't mean they'll go all out in an instant. I mean, if they do so, will they still have enough energy to face the progenitors when they do attack?**

 *** Sincoln: Stupid shiz.**

 *** Dragon Ball Z?**

 *** The chapter's here, right now.**

 **3) Observant Guest:**

 *** Besides, the fandom depicts them as enemies way too often.**

 *** Hopefully that theme hasn't revived the old meme...**

 *** Fun fact: I actually had to check back on my Castes picture on DA to remember what the Lisa caste actually is like.**

 *** True.**

 *** Yeah, for some reason, I feel like Ronnie Anne and Clyde not having a good relationship out of the gate is one of the few constants across all of the Loudverse, like Lincoln being a total casanova.**

 *** I'll let this chapter be the judge of that.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 33: The Calm Before the Stormy Weather! An Unexpected Uprising?!**

* * *

Back where we left off, the main trio were walking to the park to meet up with Lori, Luan, and Luna. Clyde walked in front of Lincoln, who was leisurely going in the middle, and Ronnie Anne, who had her arms behind her head while talking about something.

"So, I've been wondering if I could do something with my birthmark other than call Bobby every once in a while," the tomboy said. "You know, something like creating those holo-whatever Lori made when Lame-O's sisters were training.

"Holograms," Clyde casually corrected.

"Yeah, those things!" Ronnie Anne saved her hands in her pockets. "And, come to think of it, Lori hasn't made one of those things in a while, has she?"

And then Ronnie Anne stopped and blurted, "Actually, I don't think Lori has done anything since then, has she?"

Lincoln and Clyde stopped as the former asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, think about it: When those copycats first attacked, she and Dumb-O were busy dealing with Carol, but what about since then?" Ronnie Anne scratched her chin. "When Diva-O's copycat turned the whole pageant stuff upside down, she and Dumb-O didn't do anything, did they?"

"Well, outside of Lola, we were all encased in crystal at the time," Lincoln sheepishly revealed. "Not much we could do about that."

"Oh? Well, okay then," Ronnie Anne snapped her fingers. "But what about the beach? There was a giant sea monster, and something about Atlantis, and they didn't even lift a finger to help!"

"How do you know about Atlantis?" Clyde inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Carol gave me a quick summary of what happened with her sometime ago," Ronnie Anne nonchalantly answered. "Anyway, my point is, Lori and Dumb-O have been around since this whole deal began, and yet they haven't done anything to help us besides train us before Carol took their place."

"Hmm... now that you mention it, Lori and Leni haven't moved to help whenever the progenitors attacked," Clyde scratched his chin. "It's almost as if they don't, or maybe even can't, fight against them."

"What are you talking about, Clyde?! Of course they can fight!" Ronnie Anne stated, stomping the ground. "All they have to do is get up close and punch them, easy peasy!"

Clyde chuckled, which got on Ronnie Anne's nerves. "What's so funny?!"

Lincoln promptly, calmly explained, "You just called him by his name."

The tomboy realized what she did as she blushed, looked elsewhere and tried to deny it. "I-It was an accident! I got so fired up about the whole "Lori and Dumb-O doing nothing to help" that I forgot his nickname!"

Clyde's chuckling stopped in that moment. "Nickname? Is that what it is?"

"Well, yeah, Nerd-O's a nickname, just like Lame-O, Dumb-O, Goth-O, all that stuff!" Ronnie Anne's blushing stopped and she turned back to Clyde. "Why are you so surprised?"

The boy narrowed his eyes as Lincoln explained, "Ronnie Anne, those nicknames you've been using... they're not exactly flattering, you know?"

"Yeah, so?" Ronnie Anne tilted her head. "I can't just call people I'm not familiar with by their name, so using a nickname's the obvious thing to do. But I can't do something that's too cutesy or lame, so I just take the most notable thing I can see about them and add "O" at the end."

Lincoln and Clyde were left speechless: The former completely frozen in place while the latter adjusted his glasses.

"Interesting, indeed," Clyde remarked. "It seems you're much more interesting than I thought, Ronnie Anne."

The tomboy raised an eyebrow. "In what way."

With a cheerful smile, the boy gave his response:

"In a "This girl has got to have a few screws loose" way."

Ronnie Anne clenched her fists and stomped the ground, just in time for an explosion to happen and shake the ground, with the team barely managing to stay afoot.

"What was that?!" Lincoln exclaimed.

"It came from the park!" Clyde stated, turning to see the spectacles from afar. "And from the looks of it, somebody's fighting there!"

"It must be Lori, Joke-O, and Rock-O!" Ronnie Anne clenched her fists. "We have to go help them!"

Lincoln and Clyde nodded as Ronnie Anne whistled her fingers. This made a cloud come down from the sky and rapidly approach the trio, who jumped just at the right time to get on top of the cloud as it then flew towards the park.

"Whoa, where did you learn how to do this, Ronnie Anne?!" Clyde asked.

"After Lame-O's genius sister told me what other powers she found out about my caste, I swallowed my pride and asked Chandler how to do it, and he taught me about it," Ronnie Anne explained. "Come to think of it-"

 ** _The Sweetwater Mansion..._**

"You look happier than usual, Chandler."

That line was said by Penelope as she helped the boy with some chores around the mansion. Mostly cleaning and organizing stuff.

"Can you blame me? Lindsey returned safe and sound to the house, and now, Mr. Universe and I will make sure she doesn't get kidnapped or taken away again," Chandler explained as he cleaned the tables. "And besides, I'm not that much of a grumpy guy, right?"

"Well, I don't know what you think, but ever since I became the Queen of Bullies and Clyde became my king, you weren't exactly the type to smile or laugh at something," Penelope explained while organizaing a bookshelf. "If anything, your face was in a constant frown, almost as if you hated life or something."

The redheaded boy scratched his head. "Well, admittedly, I had a big of a hard time accepting the fact I was no longer the king of bullies, but hey, your reign has brought nothing but good stuff, so I can't complain."

And then Penelope realized something. "By the way, why are you working as the Sweetwater's butler, Chandler?"

"I'm trying to pay off a debt I owe them, while also getting a little pay from this work," Chandler casually explained. "And besides, the more time I spend away from Sam, the better."

"Who's Sam?" Penelope asked.

"The girl my sister Becky was assigned to act as a caretaker to," Chandler sighed and folded his arms. "If she's not complaining about how everything was better when Mick Swagger was in Royal Woods, she's playing her guitar at an unbearably high volume."

The boy looked around and started cleaning the kitchen as he said, "It's something I'd rather not talk about."

"I see..." Penelope paused and looked around. "So, how much longer will you be working for the Sweetwaters? I mean, you can't work for them forever, can you?"

Chandler looked at the ceiling and hummed. "I never thought about that before, actually."

"What?!" Penelope shouted.

And the exclamation could be heard all the way to Lindsey's bedroom, where the girl was resting on her bed while playing with her yo-yo. She didn't do anything fancy with it, she just rolled it up and down at the ceiling.

"Well, Lola's copycat is gone, so there's something to be happy about," Lindsey remarked. "However, there's still the matter of what she did with her genius sister that forced me to get a facial reconstruction-thing."

Lindsey rolled her eyes as the yo-yo started getting longer in length. "I mean, I'll admit I shouldn't have butted into her experiment in the first place, but if Lola wasn't so sneaky enough to try cheating, I wouldn't have even got the idea to do so in the first-"

Suddenly, the yo-yo hit the ceiling, which startled the girl into stopping right then and there. The yo-yo returned to its normal length. With this, the girl got an idea and walked to the open window.

She started rolling the yo-yo again repeatedly, until she noticed it was indeed growing longer in length the more she rolled it. And as soon as she stopped, it returned to its original length.

"Interesting," Lindsey scratched her chin. "Maybe I could use this for something..."

 ** _Meanwhile, at Maggie's room..._**

Maggie nervously looked at an enraged Sam, who took several deep breaths to calm down after discovering the girl had invited Luan to come to her house.

Today, in fact.

"But, seriously speaking, how did you know I invited Luan to my house?" Maggie asked. "We didn't have a sleepover yesterday or anything, so you shouldn't have been there to see it!"

"Maggie, do you really think you're as subtle as you think you are?" Sam reached for her back and took out her phone, revealing she got a message from...Leni? "And besides, her older sister sent me a message about it."

Maggie looked closer at the image and scoffed, "Figures if someone would rat me out, it would be the dumb sister."

"Anyhow, why did you invite her over, Maggie?" Sam asked as she saved her phone back in her pocket. "That Luan brought you nothing but trouble: She's the reason you're so sad and grumpy noawadays too! Why would you want anything to do with her now?"

"Sam, you don't understand," Maggie twiddled her fingers and lowered her head. "When Luan called me, she told me that she was having trouble sleeping, and the fact that she kept calling my house until I answered made me think that it was something serious... and, perhaps it is."

Sam raised an eyebrow as Maggie continued:

"I don't know why, but when I talked with her... something inside me... wanted to help her-"

"Your nostalgia."

The gothic girl flinched and looked up to see Sam looking at her with a concerned look. She folded her arms, and promptly said:

"The little girl inside you remembered the good times you and Luan had when you were children, and for a moment, you fooled yourself into thinking you could live through a moment like that," Sam looked elsewhere. "I know about that stuff because... well, sometimes, it happens to me too."

Maggie tilted her head. "Really?"

"Yeah, I mean, whenever somebody mentions Dad, whether on Tv or radio or whatever, the kid in me chirps up and sometimes, I stay happy and stroll back home, hoping to see Dad greet me cheerfully like he used to do," Sam said with a calm, hopeful tone, only to add with a sulking one, "And then it crashes and burns when I go home and find not Dad, but Becky, waiting to greet me."

"Right, ever since Dad left, you moved in with that Becky woman," Meggie scratched the side of her head. "I still don't understand why that was the case, though. Couldn't you go live with your Mom?"

"That's easy for you to say, your Mom was actually present in your life," Sam growled. "Meanwhile, I never got to meet mine."

Maggie lowered her head and frowned, only to feel a chilld go down her spine as Sam added:

"Maggie, what I'm going to tell you is two things: Incredibly harsh, and incredibly true. And the only reason I'm going to say it, is because you need to hear it, and accept it. Understood?"

Maggie winced. "Is it another one of your speeches about het and-"

"Understood?" Sam sternly repeated.

Maggie hesitantly, silently nodded.

Sam took a deep breath and then bluntly stated:

"Luan Loud, the girl that you used to be friends with... she turned you into what you are right now. She brought you nothing but sadness and pain as soon as April Fools Day arrived."

Maggie winced and clutched her chest as Sam paused, wondering what to say next.

"I'm not going to say what she did to you that day, for obvious reasons," Sam folded her arms. "But what I will tell you, is what she did once everything was said and done. She tried to apologize? Sure. She tried to make ammends? Of maybe. But at the end of the day, instead of doing everything in her power to fix things, what did she do?"

Maggie tried to say something, but she hesitated, allowing Sam to continue:

"She forgot. About you, about what happened that day, about what she put her friend through. It all vanished from her mind, as if it never meant anything to her. Now we're here, years later, and not a single apology from her since then."

Sam folded her arms behind her back. "And what's more, she has the audacity to call you! Not to apologize or see if you've been doing good since then, oh no. She calls you to see if you could help her! The person that brought you sadness and pain, wants you to help her, after the things she did to you!"

Sam leaned closer to Maggie until they were face-to-face.

"Doesn't that sound fucked up to you!?"

"...Even if it is... messed up..." Maggie narrowed her eyes. "I just can't ignore Luan's need of help! And besides, she didn't sound malicious about it, so her sleeping problems must be genuine!"

Sam took a deep breath and folded her arms as she turned away from Maggie. Once she wasn't looking at the girl, she sternly asked:

"So, years after she betrayed, your innocent trust on that Luan hasn't diminished, huh?"

Maggie stared defiantly at Sam, trying her hardest to not back away from her statement at the last second.

"Fine, if you insist that Luan comes to visit, then there's some rules that need to be established," Sam turned to Maggie with a stern look. "First rule, no pranks, on either you or anybody. Second rule, no practical jokes whatsoever. And the last rule, as soon as her April Fools self shows up, she's out of the house, no questions asked!"

The rockster narrowed her eyes. "Have I been clear?"

"Yeah, but one question," Maggie scratched her chin. "Why are you telling me this and not Luan? You know, the one the rules are for?"

"Dang it!"

 ** _Meanwhile, at the Loud Backyard..._**

Lucy and Lynn were having a training match, with the pets acting as the spectators, with Bun-Bun over there as well, for some reason.

"So, it looks like they're evenly matched right now," Walt telekinetically remarked. "Who wants to bet that the tables soon turn to Lynn's favor?"

"Waltz, how can you say that?! We're the family pets, we're supposed to love everybody!" Charles telekinetically replied. "And besides, how are you so sure that the tables will turn to Lynn's favor anyway?"

"You're kidding, right? Lynn is much more of a ferocious animal in attitude than we are in our whole bodies," Cliff sarcastically replied before he licked his paws. "I mean, we're not even natural animals, but still, that doesn't change the fact that Lynn's a brutal animal when the situation's right."

"Ah come on, have some faith in Lucy! She still has a chance against her!" Charles turned to the sentient toy bunny. "Right, Bun-Bun?!"

The toy didn't answer, and looked at the ground, concerning the family dog. "Bun-Bun?"

"Even back when the original reality was still in construction, the older Lynn was always much more of a brute and animal than the other sisters, especially compared with her counterpart, the older Lucy," Bun-Bun somberly explained. "And... I haven't seen anything that convinces me that things have changed since then."

The sentient toy turned back to the pets and sadly stated:

"I don't think Master Lucy has any chance to defeat Lynn, not in her current state."

The pets turned back to see the fight between Lucy and Lynn, and sure enough, Walt and Cliff's prediction became correct: Lynn was severely overpowering Lucy's light shield with a barrage of ferocious fists, with Lucy trying her hardest to keep the shield intact as cracks started appearing in it.

Lucy then spread her arms and made the barrier blow up, sending Lynn flying back a few feet and allowing the girl to prepare a counter attack. However, when she tried to generate something to attack Lynn with, it came out not from white energy like the barrier, but dark energy.

And this particular color reminded the goth of her counterpart.

Soon after, Lynn landed on all four and ran up to Lucy as she dissipated the dark energy and tried to create something else, only for Lynn to unleash a flurry of punches and kicks at the gothic girl, ending with a kick that sent her flying up in the sky.

Lynn leaped high and Lucy tried to channel some energy into her kick to strike back, but again, the energy came out as dark energy. The goth shook her leg to remove the energy, just in time for Lynn to clasp her hands and slam them down, sending the girl crashing into the ground.

Once that was done, Lynn landed next to Lucy, who stood up and dusted herself as she said, "Well, I guess you win this time, Lynn."

Lynn, however, looked at the goth with a look of mixed concern and exasperation, prompting her to ask, "What?"

"Lucy, I can't sense your power or anything, but I can tell that you have a lot of power deep inside you. I mean, you wouldn't be the successor of a god without it, right?" Lynn folded her arms. "So, why aren't you using all you got against me?"

"It's not that easy, Lynn," Lucy sighed. "It's easy for you because you're so athletic and strong and stuff, but I've never been that strong to begin with. The only people I can think of are weaker than me are Lola, Lisa, and Lily, and of those three, one's a baby and the other has a genius intellect that makes it worthless for her to be powerful!"

Lynn frowned. "Is that really the only reason?"

Lucy paused, and lowered her head. "No, it's not. I'm still... recovering..."

"From what?" Lynn tilted her head. "Anything physical or something?"

"No, nothing physical," Lucy sighed. "Something... mental."

Lynn sat next to Lucy and put a hand on her shoulder as the girl explained:

"Ever since the progenitors attacked us when we first found out the truth about our world, and when my counterpart subjected me to that dark void... I haven't been able to recover from it. Sometimes, I see images of the things I saw them flash in my mind, when I least expect it."

Lynn frowned. "What did you see?"

"I saw Lincoln being tortured... mentally and physically..." Lucy started shivering. "I saw our sisters... even myself... looking crazed and covered in blood... and..."

Lucy rubbed her forehead and took a couple deep breaths. "So many other things I don't want to remember-"

"Okay, then stop, don't remember any further, I get the picture," Lynn sighed, grabbing her sister's remaining hand. "But, is there anything else you can tell me? That's not related to the bad images, of course?"

"Well, when I was about to attack you after the shield broke," Lucy lowered her hand, opened her palm, and generated a sphere of dark energy. "Rather than my energy looking white, it came out looking like this."

"Darkness, huh?" Lynn scratched her chin as Lucy dissipated the sphere. "It's never done that before?"

"As far as I'm aware, no," Lucy shook her head. "Everything I've made was colored white before. Then again, most of the things I made were with the purpose of defense: Walls, barriers, sure I tried using some of them offensively, but their purpose was to defend first and foremost."

Lynn hummed and stood up. "This sounds like something we should discuss with Leni, Carol, or Lori."

"Leni and Carol are going to be busy with something, if they aren't busy already," Lucy remarked, also standing up. "But I think Lori's at the park, training Luna and Luan."

Lynn smiled. "Well then, let's head there!"

Lucy frowned and lowered her head. "I don't know, Lori's kinda... scary, with all the power she has."

"Oh, please, they're training, she's not going to go all out!" Lynn put her hands on her hips. "I mean, how bad could it be if she's holding back?"

 ** _At the Park..._**

Tabby leisurely walked towards the spot she was supposed to meet the rest of the Sadie Hawkins dates, while looking at the sky, which had suddenly turned cloudy.

"I hope the girls brought their umbrellas," Tabby said as she opened her arm and generated an umbrella made of energy. "I mean, I don't think it'd be a big problem to split this into four, but-"

"Tabby!"

The rockstar girl stopped and turned to see Haiku, Giggles, and Polly running up to her before they stopped and caught their breath.

"Oh hey girls, I was heading to the meeting spot," Tabby remarked as she walked to her friends, seemingly oblivious to their worry. "Is something the matter-?"

Suddenly, Haiku grabbed Tabby's jacket and pulled her closer as she exclaimed, "We need to get out of here, now!"

Tabby, startled by this sudden forwardness from the usually calm Haiku, smacked her with her energy umbrella twice until she released her. This prompted Polly to separate the two and explain:

"Listen, Tabby, remember Luna and Luan? They're currently training with their oldest sister, hence why the sky's all cloudy."

Tabby looked back up. "So that's why today's so cloudy. Do you think there might be rain or lighting?"

"They're fighting the one with power over lighting, so I think it'll be a thunderstorm!" Giggles said, right before the girls heard a thunder in the background. "Anyhow, we can't stay here while they're fighting! We need to go somewhere safe!"

Another thunder was heard, this time accompanied by the ground violently shaking, and a pair of lines, one light blue and one purple, clashing in the skies at rapid speeds. And although they couldn't see who the lines were, they did have a very good idea:

"Those are the girls..."

And mere seconds later, a lance seemingly made of light pierced Haiku in the gut. The dates promptly turned around and saw the one who shot the lance was none other than Silas, with his palm extended in front of him, and what looked like zombie-like versions of Lynn, Luna, Lucy, and Luan standing besides him.

"Silas?!" Haiku asked before she dropped to her knees. "What... are you doing...?!"

The boy narrowed his eyes at his name being called, moments before he snapped his fingers, and the zombie-like Loud girls rushed towards the dates.

 ** _The Graveyard..._**

The Mortician's Club members, minus Haiku and Lucy obviously, were dusting off a skeleton they just dug out when they heard the thunders and turned around to see the cloudy sky.

"Something's telling me we shouldn't be out here," the member with buck teeth said as the skeleton slowly moved its head towards her. "Maybe we should head back inside-"

And then the skeleton spoke:

"Well hello there!"

The club freaked out as they released the skeleton. The thing stopped itself from hitting the ground by putting its hands on the floor, then stood up as its eyes started glowing: They had yellow pupils and black sclera, which made the club make an instant connection.

Proto-Lucy was controlling the skeleton from afar.

"Looks like you've been busy trying to find some bodies for me to possess," the skeleton said, putting its skeletal hands on its skeletal hips. "After all, the plan won't be able to succeed, if there are no corpses to possess, don't you think?"

"Anyway, that's besides the point!" the skeleton stood up and wobbily walked around the fields as they took a look at the surrounding area. "Have you managed to find any actual corpses? Because for the dozenth time, those skeletons used in science class don't count!"

"W-We've been looking for "But everything we've found has been debunked by your former champion, Haiku-"

"Bah, you still listen to that girl's nonsense?" the skeleton folded its arms. "You said it yourself: She used to be my champion, but that's no more! She means nothing to me, her word included!"

The skeleton slowly turned to face the club. "But, in short, you don't have any bodies?"

The club nervously shook their heads, and next thing they knew, their eyes glew yellow and they felt a sharp pain in their stomach as the skeleton spoke:

"Well, don't worry! I'm pretty sure we can fix that! Now, is there any event happening right now? Maybe something with a lot of people in there?"

Reluctantly, the buck-toothed girl member answered:

"There's... a beauty pageant, some streets away from here... and a promotion, at the mall..."

"Good," the skeleton chuckled. "That's all I need to hear."

The skeleton snapped its fingers, and any resistance the club members had for the pain in their stomachs vanished, and their bodies were taken over as they levitated and generated weapons out of light energy.

"Now then, if you can't find me bodies to possess, you will have to make them!" the skeleton proclaimed. "Go, my servants! Go to every beauty pageant, every mall promotion, every park, every place with lots of people in it! And rip their souls so their bodies can fuel my apocalypse!"

The club members flew away shortly afterwards, just in time for somebody to say:

"So, a zombie apocalypse, huh?"

The skeleton turned around and saw none other than Proto-Luna standing nearby, arms folded behind her back and with a disapproving look on her face.

"You know, when we discussed our possible apocalypse plans, I'm pretty sure "Wait until after Loudgeddon fails" or "be original with it" wouldn't need to be written rules," Proto-Luna said as she walked to the skeleton. "And yet here you are, proving me wrong."

"Well, what did you expect? You're smart, but you're no Lisa, sister!" the skeleton scoffed. "And besides, why would I need to wait until Loudgeddon comes to pass, when I can just start my own apocalypse myself?!"

"Because even if you succeed in destroying everybody else, you'd still have to fight all our other sisters in order to gain the right to "reshape the world," as is," Proto-Luna explained. "Do you really think you'd be able to fight against all of us at once, Lucy?"

Proto-Luna's eyes glew as she hissed:

"Even Lincoln knew he wouldn't be able to win against all of us by his lonesome."

"Oh please, Luna, have you forgotten that the dead are my domain?!" the skeleton chuckled. "Those spirits that never moved on, those bodies that were left to rot, I just have to snap my fingers and boom, I gain loyal servant zombies out of them!"

The skeleton leaned closer to Proto-Luna and asked with a hostile tone:

"What can you do about that, sister!?"

Without wasting a beat, Proto-Luna uppercutted the skeleton, sending the top of its head flying off into the distance, and cause the rest of the body to drop on the ground.

"I would do that," Proto-Luna sighed and looked at the horizon. "But, I'll admit, this is but a short-term delay to a long-term problem. But I got better things to do right now."

With that said, Proto-Luna flew away, leaving the skeleton behind to turn into dust as Proto-Lucy's laugh was heard in the distance.

 ** _Meanwhile, with the main trio..._**

Ronnie Anne, Clyde, and Lincoln continued flying towards the commotion, with the thunder growing more ferocious as they got closer to it.

And thunder wasn't the only thing that got more frequent as they got closer.

"Ronnie Anne, look out!" Clyde exclaimed.

The girl looked up and moved the cloud away moments before a bolt of lighting was shot at her direction, with them barely grazing the cloud.

"That was a bolt of lighting right there," Lincoln said, obviously enough. "Do you think Lori's the one creating them?"

"If that's the case, then how freaking hard is Lori fighting?!" Ronnie Anne looked forward as she dodged another lighting bolt. "Wait, I think I see her over there!"

The purple and light blue lights appeared again, and as the trio headed closer to them, they got a clearer look on who they were:

The light blue light was obviously Lori, surrounded by a light blue aura, with similarly colored electricity flowing through her body. She didn't look bruised at all.

The purple light was Luna, surrounded by a purple spiky aura, with some notable bruises all across her body, including a black eye.

Upon seeing the duo, Lincoln turned to Ronnie Anne. "Take me closer to them!"

"Are you crazy?!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed. "With what they're doing right now, it's too dangerous to-"

Having no time to listen, Lincoln got an idea and jumped up from the cloud before he whistled, causing another cloud to fly towards him. He got on the cloud and flew towards the duo, while Ronnie Anne and Clyde looked on shock and awe respectively.

"Since when can he do that?!" Ronnie Anne asked.

"Who knows, maybe you gave him inspiration?" Clyde suggested.

"Lori! Luna!" Lincoln called once he was close enough. "I don't know why you're fighting, but please stop! You might hurt yourself! And the surrounding area too!"

Luna briefly glanced at the boy, which gave Lori the perfect chance to punch her right in the face, sending her crashing into the ground. She then dahsed towards Luna, only for Lincoln to get in the way and plead:

"Lori, please! Stop this right now!"

Lori looked worried at her brother, but her eyes glew a turquoise color as she got close enough to kick him right out of the cloud, sending him falling towards the ground. The girl turned back to normal soon after, and she glanced at the boy and Luna repeatedly until she pulled her hair and flew after Luna, just as Ronnie Anne and Clyde caught Lincoln.

"It's okay, I got you buddy!" Clyde said as he pulled Lincoln up on the cloud. "Are you-"

However, as soon as Lincoln looked up, both Ronnie Anne and Clyde felt a shiver down their spine as they saw Lincoln's eyes glowing pure orange.

"Okay?"

As for Luna and Lori's fight, the rocker got back up and turned towards Luan, who was placing some banana peels all over the place. "Are you ready yet, Luan?!"

"I think so!" Luan placed one last peel on the ground. "Guide Lori over here, and the peels will do the rest!"

The rockstar nodded, and mere seconds later, Lori crashed next to her and threw a punch, which the rocker dodged before she moved slightly back. This continued for a while until Luna and Lori were in the middle of the field of peels, where Luna dodged one more time before Lori jumped straight into the peels.

As it was expected, the peels were slippery enough to cause Lori to slip, going off to another peel, and then another one, and so on as Luna caught her breath and created her energy guitar. She then crouched down, waiting for the right moment to strike.

As soon as Lori hit the last peel, Luna lunged forward, ready to strike Lori, but the eldest sister flashed a smirk and peeled backwards, kicking Luna in the chin in the process and making her drop her guitar in the process. Lori caught the guitar, and for some reason, its colors changed from its natural colors to a pure light blue color, before it changed from a guitar into a hammer.

"It's not Mjolnir, but this'll do!" Lori stated. "Got any other tricks up your sleeves, Luna?!"

The rocker gritted her teeth and took a deep breath, her mouth glowing as Lori leaped forward, ready to pummel the girl with the energy hammer. To this, Luna unleashed a noisy screech that, while not as powerful as her first one before, was still strong enough to keep Lori at bay for a couple seconds.

However, Luna ran out of breath soon after, and Lori continued to lunge at her, ready to throw down her hammer...

And then Lincoln got in between them, taking the brunt of the hit in the process.

As for the hammer? It snapped in half as soon as it hit the enraged Lincoln, who yelled:

"Enough!"

The ensuing shout caused an earthquake all across the park, with the vibrations somehow reaching even the skies where Ronnie Anne and Clyde's cloud shook before it dissipated, sending the duo falling towards the ground.

Luna and Luan immediately ran up to the duo, with Luan catching Ronnie Anne, while Luna caught Clyde.

"Are you dudes okay?" Luna asked. "That could've ended pretty badly."

"We could say the same about you and your fight with Lori!" Clyde replied before pointing at the sky. "I mean, look up there! It was sunny a moment ago, and now it's cloudy all of a sudden!"

Luan looked up. "Huh, I guess Luna and Lori did fight hard enough to affect the weather. I didn't knew they could do that."

"You didn't know, huh?" Ronnie Anne sighed. "Well, what a way to find out..."

As for Lori and Lincoln, the latter looked sternly at the former as she sheepishly said, "So, I guess you're angry that I smacked you off your cloud, huh?"

"That's not the thing that bothers me!" Lincoln snapped. "Why were you and Luna fighting so ferociously!?"

"Oh please, you call that ferocious?" Lori folded her arms and rolled her eyes. "We were just training, and I was going easy on her-"

"Easy on her, my butt!" Lincoln growled. "I could clearly see she had bruises all over her body! If you really were going easy on her, you wouldn't have beaten her up so badly!"

Lori broke a sweat and avoided eye contact. "Well, I may have gone a bit overboard. But what did you expect? The difference in power between us is just that high-"

"And what if a progenitor attacks us right now!?" Lincoln argued, clenching his fists. "After the beach episode, we know the progenitors will attack us when we relax, what if they also attack us when we're too weak to fight back!?"

Lori's eyes widened and she took a step back. "A... admittedly, I kinda didn't think about that. You have a good point there, Lincoln."

Lincoln clenched his fists one more time... and then he turned back to normal, though still clearly angry at the girl. "Just remember, if that does happen, it's on you."

Lori frowned. "Yeah, I know."

"Okay then!" Lincoln chirped up and walked back to Ronnie Anne and Clyde. "Let's go home and see if we can find something to heal Luna's injuries!"

"Hey, before we leave, there's something I'd like to ask," Clyde remarked, getting everybody's attention as he turned to Lori. "The cloudy skies were like that because you were fighting Luna?"

"Well, yeah," Lori folded her arms. "I wanted to try spice things up a little, so I used enough power so that it would affect the environment around us."

"Geez, and I thought Lola was a show-off," Luan quipped, chuckling a bit before she looked up... and saw the sky was still the same. "However, if the sky was only like that because Luna and Lori were fighting, why is it still so cloudy?"

"Perhaps it's a sign."

Everybody turned around to see the source of the voice: Silas, who stood alongside the rotting zombie-like versions of Lynn, Lucy, Luna, and Luan, each carrying their respective Sadie Hawkins date over their back.

"Girls!" Lincoln exclaimed.

"What do you want with them!?" Ronnie Anne snapped, stomping the ground.

"Relax, they're nothing more than bargaining chips," Silas glanced at Haiku. "Well, three of them are just bargaining chips. This one... is a bit more important."

Silas looked sternly at Lincoln as he finished:

"After all, she was the first to be broken by you, lord and savior."

"Broken?!" Lincoln exclaimed. "W-What do you mean broken-?!"

"Silas?!"

Everybody turned around and saw Lynn and Lucy arriving at the scene, the latter on top of the former's back.

"W-What's going on?" Lucy asked as she got off. "Where are you taking the girls to? And why-"

"Lucy, I'd be more than happy to answer your twenty questions, really, I would," Silas interjected as he put his hands on his pockets. "But I'm afraid all of Royal Woods will be in danger soon, so I can't stay here any longer."

The boy generated a ball of light out of his body, which he morphed into a scythe before he swung it, somehow opening a portal in the process.

"And I suggest you leave now, and go back to your house."

With that said, Silas and the zombie quartet jumped through the portal and took the dates with them, with the portal vanishing out of existence as Lincoln thought about what he said:

"All of Royal Woods will be in danger soon... Why do I have the feeling this has something to do with a progenitor?"

"Honestly, at this point, everything might as well have something to do with the progenitors," Ronnie Anne sighed as she got off Luan's arms.

"True, what's really important is to find out what he meant by danger," Clyde said, also getting off Luna's arms. "We're in the park, so, maybe-"

Suddenly, a hand sprouted from the grass near the park, followed by several more hands doing the same as the original hand gripped the grass and pulled the rest of its body up, revealing itself to be a zombie.

And while everybody else looked at the zombie in horror, Clyde seemed more exasperated.

"Huh, I was gonna suggest that maybe the trees would come alive and attack us, but I guess zombies work too."

More zombies came out, which prompted Lynn to get ahead of everybody and charge a pair of fireballs.

"Leave this to me! If there's one thing that I've learned about zombies in fiction," Lynn fused both fireballs into one. "Is that one of the best ways to deal with them is burning them to a crisp!"

The jock shot the fireball at the zombie horde, but to her shock, the first zombie it reached simply grabbed the fireball, spun around a bit, and then shot it right back at her, with the ball exploding and sending Lynn flying right into Luna's arms.

"Lynn!" Lucy exclaimed as she ran to the jock. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm pretty sure I am..." Lynn chuckled then looked up, revealing to Lucy that at least half of her face was badly burnt. "I mean, I'm pretty sure we're immune to our own attacks, right?"

Lucy blinked twice at the sight, then shook her head. "W-Whatever, we need to leave right now!"

Everybody nodded and got ready to leave while Lori and Lincoln looked at the zombie that returned the fireball. It was mostly unrecognizable, except for one particular feature in its body:

A birthmark on it's neck, shaped just like Lynn's birthmark.

The duo exchanged a look, and soon later the team left when Lori called upon several clouds for them to use as rides. And as they left, a familiar figure watched as more zombies popped out of the ground and started marching out of there.

Who was this figure? Proto-Lynn.

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Hello everybody, Lucy here."

The scene showed Mr. and Mrs. Loud getting ready to train with the Loud Slayers, which took the form of a white lance and sword with orange highlights, respectively.

"First my energy goes from light to dark..."

The scene changed, showing Maggie and Sam jumping from roof to roof, overlooking the zombies that were overruning the city.

"And now zombies are suddenly overruning Royal Woods?"

There was another change, this time showing the Casagrandes coming out of their apartment and witnessing a Morticians Club member rising zombies from the ground.

"Now only that, but other places, too?"

Two quick changs came next, the first one showing Hattie and Liam being saved by Claire, and the second one showing Mr. Universe saving Penelope, Chandler, and Lindsey.

"I can't help but feel like my counterpart has something to do with this, but..."

Back with Maggie and Sam, the duo spotted a pair of kids, the Spokes siblings, and jumped to their aid.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Proto-Lynn charged a giant fireball towards some horrified zombies as Lucy narrated the title:

" _They Rise From Their Graves! The Zombie Apocalypse Finally Begins!_ "

Proto-Luna then appeared in the park, getting Proto-Lynn's attention.

"Don't miss it!"

The final shot shows Bobby shooting some electricity at some zombies, before a peculiar figure enters the battlefield and locks eyes with him:

The figure being none other than Proto-Luan.


	34. Rising Apocalypse

**And now, we continue where we left off... kinda, and we're going to see how different characters react to the news that the zombie apocalypse has finally begun.**

 **So yeah, besides Rita and Lynn, this chapter isn't exactly focused exclusively on the Loud family. Which hey, I don't think anybody's going to complain, especially when there's so much dang stuff happening around.**

 **Now, let's answer some reviews!:**

 **1) Nobody245: Well, let's see:**

 *** Proto-Lucy: The arc is named after her, so it can't be helped.**

 *** Proto-Lynn: She's Proto-Lucy's counterpart sister, so even if she didn't want to do anything, she probably would weasel her way into some relevance anyway. Besides, this isn't the first time this has happened (Proto-Lana appeared in Proto-Lola's arc to deal with Lisa, and Proto-Lola outright crashed the Atlantean party in Proto-Lana's arc).**

 *** Proto-Luan: I like to think she's here to try and add some proper nightmares to the setting, since she doesn't believe that Proto-Lucy knows how to make things dark.**

 *** Proto-Luna: She'll explain it here, but don't worry, she's not here for Lucy.**

 **2) TheCartoonist294: You're quite right about that. ;)**

 **3) Observant Guest:**

 *** Then again, you could also say opposites attract...**

 *** Yeah, friend... Just friend...**

 *** I'm pretty sure Hector and another member's caste is revealed down the line, or maybe even in this chapter, so I'll see if I remember the others:**

 **** Carlos Sr.'s part of Lisa's caste.**

 **** Frida's part of Luna's caste.**

 **** Carlos Jr.'s part of Leni's caste.**

 **** Carlino/Carl's part of Lynn's caste.**

 **** Carlitos is from the most obvious caste choice for him. I'm of course talking about the Lynn caste.**

 ***** Keep in mind all of these, unless confirmed in the story, are guesses that may or may not change, depending on what happens later down the line.**

 *** Lindsey's yo-yo is actually going to be given a bit more focus later on.**

 *** Yeah, and it totally has nothing to do with the fact Lucy's the only sister in the house that Lynn has a special relationship with. Totally not at all.**

 *** Huh, I never noticed that.**

 *** Garlic Jr.'s theme just utterly completes the unnerving nature that's Proto-Lucy's existence, especially the little parts that sound like something's glitching, or water droplets.**

 *** That music certainly sounds like the beginning of a zombie apocalypse, alright.**

 *** Trust me, he'll definitely get some big focus later on. Even if it's not in the way you'd like.**

 *** We're dealing with Proto-Lucy now. There's going to be nightmare fuel everywhere. Okay, maybe not, but that's not very reassuring.**

 *** Did you manage to listen to any of the music I recommended in chapter 32?**

 **4) ChernoMan:**

 *** Got it.**

 *** Yeah, I'm glad that's true...**

 *** Well, when the bar is as tiny as a breadcrumb, that's a very easy-to-tell sign something is long...**

 *** Thanks.**

 *** Well, the alternative is being left completely defenseless when the divine sociopath potentially gets set on the loose, so...**

 *** Well, that's quite rude.**

 *** I see.**

 **And now, for the chapter proper:**

 *** Really? Why?**

 *** Hey, it's better than nothing. I mean, Lynn took until season's 3 "The Middle Men" before she got some good development, so, let's be glad Ronnie Anne didn't wait that long! XD**

 *** What! Are you doing! In my swamp?!**

 *** Chandler and Penelope? Just double checking, 'cause this being The Loud House: Ultimate Edition, EVERYBODY IS HERE!**

 *** Mom! ChernoMan is giving me the perfect setup for a Phineas and Ferb reference!**

 *** Oh, how things would've changed if that lesson was learned a billion years ago...**

 *** Sam's kind of a downer who's also mentally messed up, which you'll see why in the later chapters.**

 *** *Dogsong plays***

 *** Fear of fear itself.**

 *** You don't like Haiku in general, or in this fanfic?**

 *** Well, Proto-Lola isn't around to ruin it this time, so that's an improvement...**

 *** She has the mind of an eight year old, can't expect much patience from her.**

 *** G.I. LOUD!**

 *** Who says Lori's the puppet of her own counterpart?**

 *** She's going to launch a full-on attack... on your mind.**

 *** Yeah, Lux-Umbra is a bit of peanuts compared to this.**

 *** I'm going to be completely honest, because the story's so long and I have a billion other things going on, I do rush things out for the most part. Plus, I don't have my trustworthy co-partner in writing this A Hopeful Observer to help with the mistakes. And other times, I don't even get the chance to fix anything before I'm forced to post it.**

 *** Did something happen, or are you just taking an impromptu vacation?**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 34: They Rise From Their Graves! The Zombie Apocalypse Finally Begins!**

* * *

Mr. and Mrs. Loud were at the organization's training room, which took the form of a large, white, blank room. They each held a weapon, a lance and a sword, in their hands, whose shape was primarily white with orange highlights.

"Alright, time to put the Loud Slayers to the test!" Rita stated as she gripped the sword. "Howard! Harold! Send us the robots when you're ready!"

"Copied, Mrs. Loud," Harold said through the speaker. "But, uh, are you sure you want to use the androids? Wouldn't you prefer using something... a bit easier?"

"The Loud Slayers were designed to be the ultimate anti-progenitor weapon, they even have progenitor blood or proto-blood or whatever it's called in them and stuff!" Rita replied, resting the sword on her shoulder. "Naturally, the best thing to test is with the best the organization has in their disposal, right?"

"I think what they're trying to say is if you're _really_ intent on testing the weapons on the hardest, most expensive equipment available," Mr. Loud clarified, getting his wife's attention. "Remember, the androids are expensive to build and program; They should only be used as a last resort, not as the first thing to use. And besides, if we destroy them, that's one less thing the organization has left to defend themselves."

"But anything else other than the androids would fail to use the Loud Slayers to their fullest potential!" Rita argued in return, stomping the ground. "Anything that isn't an android would get destroyed in a single hit!"

"To be fair, you're using the sword-based loud slayer. A sharp one at that," Lynn Sr. pointed out, rolling his eyes. "Anything would be destroyed in a single swing of that thing regardless."

Seeing her husband's point, and glancing at her sword just to be sure, Rita sighed, "Fine, let's test these things out on something weaker. How about the Robot Bun-Buns?"

The couple nodded in agreement and promptly summoned the robot Bun-Buns, which were exactly as their name implied: Robotic copies of Bun-Bun. Lincoln's Bun-Bun, to be exact.

Rita pulled the "come at me" gesture at the robots, causing them to narrow their eyes and jump straight towards the couple. This proved to be their downfall, as Rita proceeded to slice them in half with several swings of her loud slayer sword, while Lynn Sr. aimed his lance and threw it, impaling a row of Bun-Bun robots until the lance hit the wall, where the robots blew up soon afterwards.

Once the smoke cloud dissipated, the lance was revealed to be perfectly fine.

"Okay, the robots exploded, but the lance is still intact," Lynn Sr. remarked as he walked to the lance, grabbed it, and pulled it out. "I'm sure that means the durability test is a success."

"And judging by the fact they're not regenerating, the "regeneration-canceling" property also works," Rita said while pointing at some sliced Bun-Bun robots, which blew up soon after. "That's two tests out of three, but we can't do the last one without fighting one of the progenitors."

"Whoa, wait right there!"

The couple turned around and saw Harold and Howard running up to them as the latter said, "What do you mean you can't do the last test without fighting a progenitor?!"

"Being able to hurt the progenitors is just one of their functions," Mrs. Loud proudly answered. "You see, the main purpose of the Loud Slayer is-"

"Mr. and Mrs. Loud, and Mr. and Mr. McBride, please head to the meeting room," the speaker spoke with the monitor's voice. "Repeat, Mr. and Mrs. Loud, and Mr. and Mr. McBride, please head to the meeting room."

"Oh great, what now?" Rita complained, rolling her eyes. "First we're told to come here to test the loud slayers, and after we do a little of that, we're called _back_ to the meeting room?"

"Hey, seeing how they called just as you said something crazy, I'm not complaining," Howard stated, with Lynn Sr. and Harold nodding in agreement as Rita looked exasperated at him. "Anyway, let's see what's going on. There might be something happening in Royal Woods."

The parents walked to the meeting room as requested, where they met Coach Pacowski, who was watching the monitors, and the teacher trio, who were looking at the monitors with concern.

"We came here as soon as we could," Harold said as he walked to Pacowski's side. "What's wrong?"

The monitor came down from the ceiling and spoke as the parents looked at the monitors:

"Corpses have started reanimating out of nowhere, and coming out of their graves. Essentially, zombies are invading Royal Woods right now."

The agents gasped in horror.

"But how could that be possible?" Rita asked, folding her arms. "I mean, if they were coming out of the graveyard or somewhere with gravestones, I would understand, but why would zombies start coming out all across Royal Woods?"

"It's something very simple, Mrs. Loud," Mrs. Johnson said as she turned to look at the woman. "Remember: The world we live in is a new reality made by Lincoln after he destroyed the original one."

Rita quickly connected the dots. "Wait... you're not implying that the zombies are actually the protophilim, are you?"

"While we have no evidence to support this idea, it's the only one that justifies the large number of zombies sprouting from Royal Woods' fertile ground," the monitor said. "However, what matters right now is to stop the zombies from spreading further: The living residents of Royal Woods must be protected."

"Which means we have to go right now!" Pacowski stated as he stood up. "Everybody, let's put on our suits and head to Royal Woods right away!"

Everybody nodded and separated to go do that, with the monitor looking at them until they left. It then retracted and came out of the wall above Flip's office, startling the old man.

"Hello, boss!" Flip said, trying to stay calm. "What brings you here?"

"The teachers, the Loud parents, and Pacowski are leaving for Royal Woods, which is currently undergoing a zombie invasion," the monitor explained thoroughly. "I need you and a certain number of other agents to guard the organization until their return."

Flip raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure that'll be necessary?"

The alarms then blared, prompting the monitor to answer:

"I believe so, yes."

The old man took a deep breath and stood up. "Well, I might as well get the old lady ready for combat."

Flip walked to a door and went through it, with the monitor retracting back on the ceiling, then coming down from the ceiling of the room Flip went into, and it turned around to see Flip standing in front of

"Time to get back into action, old friend..."

 ** _Meanwhile, at the city..._**

The Morticians Club members flew over the city, with one of their members flying down and landing his weapon on the ground, causing zombies to pop up from the ground. Then, the zombies started roaming the streets while looking at their surroundings.

This, naturally, got the attention of the people nearby, but while most of them hid inside, one family in particular came out and got ready to face the zombie invasion.

These were the Casagrandes.

"And here I was hoping we could spend more than a week with nothing happening," Carlota said as she took a couple steps forward. "Although, I will admit, I was expecting something a little bit different."

"Like what?" Carlino, the second youngest son, asked.

"I don't know, an alien invasion, perhaps?" Carlota thought out loud. "I was getting ready to suspend my disbelief after the whole beach deal, but not for this kind of situation."

Suddenly, one of the zombies spotted the family and ran towards them, which prompted Carlota to jump up and then blow some ice breath at the creature, encasing it completely in ice.

"Zombies, huh?" Carlota remarked as she hit the ground. "Which one of our family members is part of the Lucy caste, again?"

"That would be me," Hector, the grandfather, answered as he walked towards the zombie. "And yes, I still think placing the old man in the caste all about death is quite a cruel joke."

"Nobody's ever given a choice on what caste they belong to, sweetheart," Rosa said as she walked to her husband's side. "Now, ask the zombie what he's doing."

"I would, but it seems Carlota covered him entirely, head included," Hector said, glancing at a whistling Carlota before he turned to Carlos, the father of the house. "Carlos, your turn."

The man nodded and adjusted his glasses before he shot a green eye beam from them, melting the ice covering the zombie's head. Without also melting the zombie's head as well.

"Thanks, son," Hector told the man before he turned to the zombie. "Now, go on, tell me what were you about to do?"

The zombie took a couple deep breaths before it chuckled, with a distorted voice. "We have but one purpose... help the fake reaper breach the world of the living... and the world of the dead..."

Hector raised an eyebrow as the zombie continued. "We were brought back to serve her. We were brought back, to become the revenant that will pierce the afterlife!"

"The revenant that will pierce the afterlife?" Hector thought about it for a moment, and scratched his chin as he got an idea. "No, there's no way Vine would try to do that, is there?"

"You have an idea of what they're talking about?" Carlota asked, raising an eyebrow and folding her arms.

Hector glanced at Carlota, and folded his arms before he explained:

"There's one particular type of skeletal creature known as the "Gashadokuro." It's an amalgamation of at least a thousand zombies, whose skin melts away in order to form the skeletal beast. It was summoned during the war that predated the fall of the original reality, and it acted as an attempt to take over the afterlife from Vine's successor Ariel, but it failed-"

"Interesting history lesson there, gramps, really intriguing and stuff," Carlota rolled her eyes. "Now, mind saying that again, in words we understand?"

"The zombies are trying to merge together into a giant skeletal beast, which is said to be able to reach the heavens," Hector recapped, sounding slightly exasperated as he did. "However, it won't be able to reach that transformation if there aren't enough zombies for the merging process."

Carlino covered his fists in fire. "Say no more!"

The boy jumped forward towards the imprisoned zombie, but a white flash of light grabbed the zombie and took him away moments before the kid punched him, ending with him hitting the ground face-first.

The flash of light soon revealed itself to be the Morticians Club member that created the zombies, who then swung his "soul weapon" once, and it somehow released them from their crystal prison, before they dropped them on the ground.

"I'm afraid I won't let you do that," the club member said with a distorted voice. "Nobody is allowed to stop Master Vine's apocalypse."

The member swung their weapon again, and the Casagrandes narrowly dodged it.

"Okay, if it's a fight he wants, it's a fight he'll get!" Carlino stated as he cracked his knuckles. "Everybody! Gang up on him!"

The boy jumped up towards the club member, ready to launch a barrage of punches at him... only to find Carlota holding him by the neck of his suit.

"Don't do anything reckless, Carlino. We don't have time to waste with your shenanigans!" the fashionista sternly said as she put her brother on the ground. "Listen, you and the rest of the family go look around the city for zombies to incapacitate. I'll stay here and keep this weirdo occupied."

The family agreed to the plan and separated as Carlota took a couple steps forward and the club member floated down until he hit the ground. As he did that, he chuckled a little while looking at Carlota with a mocking look.

"What's so funny?" Carlota sternly asked.

"Oh, just the fact that I have a very unique existence right in front of me," the club member answered. "A champion whose master has been destroyed."

Carlota's eyes widened.

"Yes, indeed, your existence is one that is unique, yet very tragic," the club member spoke with a condescending, yet sympathetic tone. "To think you trained your entire life to serve your progenitor, only for them to literally shatter into a million pieces."

Carlota gritted her teeth and clenched her fist, which shook as the club member added:

"I bet it hurts, doesn't it?"

Then, the shaking stopped, and Carlota's frown slowly turned into a smile. Then, she started chuckling for a while, until she started laughing out loud.

"Does it hurt?! Quite the contrary!" the girl proudly proclaimed. "When I heard how she got shattered, I felt a massive weight get off my back!"

The club member took a step back in shock. "Surely, you jest! Progenitor Lola was one of the original gods of this world-"

"That "Lola" was nothing more than a rip-off, a cheap piece of dirt, an imitation of the diamond that is the true Lola," Carlota put a hand on her hip and shrugged a little. "And quite frankly, whether you're saying this because it's what you think or because you're possessed or something, I can't help but feel pity for you."

She then raised her free hand, clenched it into a fist, and covered it in crystal resembling the shape of a sword. "The only gods you've ever prayed to are fake idols, after all."

The club member's eyes turned red and he flew towards Carlota as fast as he could as he proclaimed:

"Nobody mocks Mother Lucy and gets away with it!"

However, as soon as he swung his soul weapon at Carlota, she blocked it with her crystal sword, and flashed a confident smirk and wink as both weapons clashed with an audible sound.

 ** _Then, with the City Trio..._**

Casey and Sameer looked around the streets while Nikki tried to call Bobby with her phone, with her getting the "Number not available" message for the third time in a row.

"Hmm, the chief isn't answering his phone," Nikki remarked as she saved the phone in her pocket. "Do you think something happened to him?"

"He usually uses the phone to call his girlfriend, so it's weird that he hasn't even tried to tell us he's busy," Casey answered with a shrug. "Then again, considering the situation, he's probably busy trying to take care of the zombies that are coming out to eat everybody's brains or something."

"I don't even understand why zombies are popping out here," Sameer blurted. "I thought they would only come out of the ground of Royal Woods?"

Nikki looked elsewhere. "Well..."

The boys turned to the blonde girl, who took a deep breath and explained:

"Okay, don't get angry at me, but during one of our briefings back at the organization... I managed to sneak into the records, and read the files associated with this city-"

"You did what?!" Casey exclaimed. "Entering the records when you don't have clearance is troublesome enough, reading them is going to get you in serious trouble!"

"I know, and I left as soon as I could, but while reading the records, I found out something interesting about this city," Nikki added. "As it turns out, this city and Royal Woods have a connection. And... there might even be the chance that they're one and the same."

"But how could that be possible?" Sameer inquired, folding his arms. "This place is far away from Royal Woods, how could they have a connection if they're so far apart?"

"I wondered that too, so I tried to find as much information about it as I could," Nikki sighed. "All I could really manage to get out of the search was a vague statement."

The blonde girl looked at the sky as she said the statement:

" _It is thus, by Royal decree, that the neophilim shall live in the civilizations built on this collection of Woods._ "

"So, Lincolnism isn't the only one place using vague statements? Good to know," Sameer rolled his eyes.

"Do you have any idea what this statement could mean?" Casey inquired.

"I did get an idea on what it could mean before I left," Nikki lowered her head. "But it's also an idea that just makes me all the more worried for what's to come."

Sameer raised an eyebrow. "What's that idea?"

Nikki paused, and with a serious look, she answered:

"Royal Woods might not be the name of the _city_ , but the name of the ground that and several other cities were built on."

 ** _Meanwhile, at Liam's farm..._**

The boy and his cousin, Hattie, ran away from some zombies as the latter aimed her palm at some blocks and other stuff, which were surrounded by a green aura as they levitated and were then thrown at the zombies, with most of them being hit by them except for one small zombie, who raised their arm and stopped them in mid-air.

"Great, as if those things chasing us wasn't enough, one of them's from Mother Lisa's caste!" Hattie snapped, stomping the ground as she levitated more objects. "Luckily, she's small, so something big should be able to destroy her-"

"Hattie, wait!" Liam exclaimed before he grabbed the girls' shoulders. "Please, be careful of what you throw at them! Sure, there might be some worthless things like broken machinery, but some of the other stuff might be important for barn work!"

"Relax, Liam," Hattie lowered most of the stuff she raised, except for one very rusty tractor. "I'll just throw this old, busted tractor at her."

Liam was about to say something when Hattie threw the thing at the zombie, crushing her underneath and releasing the objects she kept in place, dropping them on top of the machinery as Liam and Hattie continued to run away.

Until they wound up being surrounded by a ring of zombies that suddenly sprouted from the ground, that is. Not helping matters was that the zombies rushed at them as soon as they came out of the ground...

And then they were slashed to bits by an unknown figure, who grabbed the kids and put them away from the spot as the slashed and diced zombie pieces hit the floor.

The figure turned out to be none other than Claire, with Watterson resting on her head, like usual.

"Oh hey, I know who you are, you're the former champion of the deceased Progenitor Lana, right?" Hattie asked as she and Liam stood up. "What are you doing here?"

"Hattie, please be more polite, she just saved our butts!" Liam scolded before he turned to Claire. "Thanks for saving us. But, as Hattie asked, what are you doing here?"

"Zombies have been starting to pop up everywhere in Royal Woods," Claire explained, focusing solely on the pile of bones that the zombies left behind. "Sooner or later, they'll become a problem for everybody, me included. So, I thought it only made sense to get rid of them before it was too late: You just so happened to need my help as well."

"Wait, those things are popping up everywhere?" Liam asked, earning a nod from the toddler. "Then what do we do?"

"Why are you asking? Get ready to fight, of course!" Claire sternly answered as she put Watterson on the ground. "You're a member of Lana's caste, just because she's dead doesn't mean you're powerless!"

Liam looked at his arm, where his birthmark was located, with a contemplative look moments before the trio heard some bones rustling, which was followed by the pieces of the zombies reassembling themselves, with one notable difference:

Their skin didn't stay with them, they were now purely skeletons.

"Dang it, just as I figured, these things won't stay put!" Claire bared her claws and Watterson growled. "We'll keep them occupied, you two-"

"Run away? Not a chance!" Hattie levitated a busted up piece of machinery. "This is our house, and besides, I'd be a disgrace if I allowed an ex-champion to save my butt!"

"Hattie, please don't turn this into a competition," Liam requested. "But either way, the girl's right. We can't just stand here and do nothing."

Liam promptly clasped his hands and gripped them before he transformed into an ox, proclaiming:

"So let's get this rodeo started!"

 ** _Meanwhile, back at the city..._**

Several zombies marched through the streets, seemingly heading to a specific location, wherever that was. Their marching was interrupted, however, when a large spiky rock pillar bursted from the ground, impaling several of them and blocking the road in the process.

The zombies turned around and saw the one who made the pillar was none other than Sameer, sporting a confident smile as he showed his right palm to the zombies, revealing his Lana caste birthmark.

The zombies, enraged at this intrusion, dashed towards the boy, only for Nikki to jump in front of him, take a deep breath, and then unleash a titanic yell that sent the undead creatures flying away.

The resulting blow also made her hair blow a little, revealing her Luna caste birthmark on the eye her bangs usually covered.

However, the zombies not only quickly recovered, but also lost their skin in the process, turning them into skeletons and seemingly cheering them up. Before they could strike back, however, a bike was thrown at one of the skeletons, surprising and stunning them long enough for a green laser beam to follow.

The laser beam came from Casey, who blew the smoke out of his fingertips as he revealed his Lisa caste birthmark on the back of his hand.

"Casey!" Sameer exclaimed before he raised and threw a boulder at the creatures. "Nikki and I will keep the zombies occupied! Use your field vision to sense how many zombies could we face!"

"Roger!" the boy nodded.

Casey then looked down and closed his eyes. He opened them moments later, revealing they were glowing green as he scanned the ground, which allowed him to see into the underground.

Needless to say, what he saw wasn't exactly pleasent.

"Did you find anything, Casey?!" Nikki asked.

"I don't know how to put this, but..." the boy paused, then looked around before he turned his eyes back to normal. "It seems that the entire ground is filled with corpses that could turn into zombies."

"Wait, you mean like an indian burial ground?" Sameer pondered out loud. "But much bigger?"

Before the boy could answer, a zombie sprouted from behind him and got ready to bite into his head, with the boy freezing as soon as he saw it...

And then a lighting bolt came down from the sky and shocked the zombie, followed by the bolt jumping off, plitting into everal pieces and shocking the remaining zombies and skeletons in the area.

"That lighting bolt..." Casey remarked.

"It can't be anything else!" Sameer said with a smile.

The trio turned around and, to their relief, Bobby walked towards them with his palm facing forward, with a bit of smoke coming out of it.

"Chief!" Nikki exclaimed in relief. "Oh, you don't know how glad we are you're here!"

"These zombies just won't stop coming out!" Sameer said before he threw another wheel at a zombie. "And what's worse, some have even managed to throw our attacks back at us!"

"Well, good thing I'm here, then," Bobby cracked his knuckles. "Nikki, Sameer, Casey, go around the city and try to find as many survivors as possible. Don't let any of them turn into zombies!"

"But what about you, chief?" Casey asked with concern. "In fact, what about the rest of your family?"

"Mom and Ronnie Anne are far away from here, in a safe place. As for the Casagrandes, I'm sure they got things under control," Bobby smiled with confidence. "Now go do as I told you to do, I'll deal with these guys myself."

"Yes sir!"

The trio ran off to find survivors, leaving Bobby behind to face off against the horde of zombies that was forming right in front of him. Oh, and maybe the mortician club member floating above them.

"You're a member of the Lori caste, aren't you?" he asked. "Do you really think you have what it takes to go against Mother Vine's master plan?"

"Oh, I don't think I have what it takes," Bobby smiled with confidence. "I _know_ I have what it takes!"

"Tsk, such arrogance!" the club member hissed.

The member raised his soul weapon and called forth an entire platoon of zombies, which he threw at the guy soon after. However, Bobby simply raised his arm, and several lighting bolts came out of the sky and shocked some of the zombies, knocking them out in an instant.

The zombies that weren't shocked, however, continued rushing towards the guy, who clenched his fists as they got charged with electricity and rushed towards the zombies. He threw a couple punches at the zombies, some of them being hard enough to knock their heads right out of their necks, before he promptly clapped his hands, sending an electrical shock wave across the field, that paralyzed the zombies.

He followed this by surrounding his arm in lighting-like energy shaped like a sword, and slashing and hacking his way through the paralyzed sombies, before he jumped high in the air and spun around until he unleashed a large, lighting slash across the room, cutting in half the zombies that didn't dodge it, and also managing to get a hit on the club member as well.

By the end of it, though several zombies remained, they stood still, seemingly too terrified to face against the guy. And the club member? He outright fled from the scene.

"Yup, I'm pretty sure that proves my point," Bobby clenched his fists. "Now, who's next?!"

"I believe that needs no answer."

Bobby looked up and saw a part of the clouds open in a flower-like pattern, from where a familiar face flew down towards the ground. This figure was none other than Proto-Luan, looking as stern as usual.

"Oh hey, you're the Progenitor of the Luan Caste. Zagan, right?" Bobby folded his arms. "So, are you going to fight me next?"

"Please, I don't have time to meddle with an insignificant joke like you," Proto-Luan folded her arms and looked at the horizon. "I have something important to do: Make sure Lucy doesn't bite more than she can chew."

"By "Lucy" you mean the prototype, right?" Bobby put a hand on his hip. "What exactly is her plan? Why did she suddenly resurrect all of these zombies?"

"You either have a keen mind or a bad habit of jumping to conclusions, if you think that the zombies are the result of Lucy's machinations," Proto-Luan rolled her eyes. "I mean, it's not wrong, but it's still worth pointing out."

Proto-Luan put her hands on her hips. "And while I would normally leave without answering your question, I just find the fact you fight back against the things so pathetic, I can't help but pity you."

Bobby frowned. "You know, for the progenitor of a caste full of comedians and such, you're kind of a downer."

"If you had gone through half the shit I've had to deal with, you'd be the same," Proto-Luan took a deep breath. "Anyway, Lucy's plan, if I'm not mistaken, is to use the zombies as fuel in order to summon her primordial beast to break into the afterlife."

Bobby took a step back and gasped. "Wait, are you serious?!"

"Is my permanent glare not enough proof for you?" Proto-Luan turned around. "Anyway, I've wasted enough time with you. I have to go find Luna and Lynn."

With that said, Proto-Luan was surrounded in a yellow aura as she flew off to look for her sisters, leaving behind the horrified Bobby, who said:

"I have to tell this to the Louds!"

 ** _Meanwhile, at the Sweetwater Mansion..._**

In yet another place invaded by zombies, Lindsey, Chandler, and Penelope tried to hold off the zombie invasion as best as they could. Chandler and Penelope fought it, while Lindsey stayed behind them.

"Lindsey, stay behind me!" Chandler charged his fists with electricity. "I'll take care of those-"

Before the boy could even blink however, Lindsey's yo-yo suddenly struck the zombies, with it spinning around and hitting several more zombies before it rolled right back at her hand.

Naturally, Chandler turned to look at the redhead as he finished, "-Zombies?"

Lindsey then threw her yo-yo again and used it to catch the zombies in a web, before she lifted it up and slammed it into the ground, splitting the zombies into pieces.

"Huh, looks like Mrs. Yo-Yo over here can pull up her own weight," Penelope remarked before she patted Lindsey's back. "Those are great news! It means we can go regroup with Clyde and his friends!"

"Not so fast, Penelope! Mrs. Lindsey might be able to pull some tricks with her yo-yo, but that doesn't mean she can handle a zombie invasion by herself!" Chandler sternly retorted. "We should at least keep her safe until Mr. Universe arrives or something!"

"Now that you mention it," Penelope turned to Lindsey. "Where is your father?"

"I'm here!"

The team looked up and saw Mr. Universe crash down the ceiling and land down, sending the zombies flying upwards as he proclaimed:

"Arriving just in time to repel the zombies!"

The man took a deep breath and then exhaled an ice breath that covered the zombies in ice.

"You three, get out of here and head for the safe room!" Mr. Universe stated. "I'll keep the zombies busy!"

"But what about you, Dad?!" Lindsey exclaimed.

"Don't worry, my little galaxy, as long as you're safe and sound, everything will be fine," Mr. Universe stated. "And besides, I'm not going to deal with them alone."

The man turned around and gave the trio a thumbs up. "Leave this to my team!"

Chandler and Penelope nodded and dragged Lindsey with them to the safe room... just in time for more zombies to break into the house through the windows, getting in the way to the safe room.

The boy thought quickly and whistled, summoning a cloud that flew through the broken windows and allowed the redheaded trio to get on top of it, before it flew away from the mansion.

"Okay, the safe room's out of the question," Chandler scratched his chin. "I guess the only place left to go is to Clyde's house, right?"

"Actually, he told me he was heading to the Loud house," Penelope remarked, looking particularly frustrated as she added, "That's apparently the safest place to hide right now."

Chandler smiled and nodded. "Then that's where we're heading!"

So Chandler made the cloud fly towards the Loud House, which gave the trio a chance to look at the zombie-infested streets of Royal Woods, with the number of zombies sending chills down their spines.

"I never thought I'd see a zombie apocalypse in real life, I thought that was something that was only seen in TV and movies," Lindsey remarked, frowning as she turned Chandler. "How are we going to get through this?"

Chandler put a hand on Lindsey's shoulder. "We'll find a way somehow, Lindsey, don't worry about it."

Lindsey smiled at the boy, followed by Penelope throwing a smug, trollish smile at Chandler as well.

Penelope's smile quickly got on Chandler's nerves. "What?"

"You didn't want to leave Lindsey's side because you were worried for her, right?" Penelope asked, which got Lindsey's attention.

"Of course I was worried, you jerk!" Chandler snapped, with a little bit of blushing as well. "She's the daughter of my employer! It's my job to keep her safe, among other things! If even a single hair of hers was touched by those zombies, I'd be fired!"

"Chandler, that's not the reason why you're worried for her, and both you and I know it," Penelope stated before she put a hand on Lindsey's shoulder. "You're worried for her because you're afraid you're going to lose her again, aren't you?"

The boy fell silent for a moment, then spoke, "The days after Lindsey went with her rival's copycat... were some of the toughest days for both me, and Mr. Universe. Just the idea that something could happen to her at anytime, and we wouldn't be able to stop it... that thought didn't let us sleep."

Lindsey lowered her head and frowned. "I'm sorry that I did that, but I honestly thought there was no other choice."

"Well, considering what the heck was going on then, there probably really was no other choice," Penelope brushed Lindsey's hair. "But hey, look at the bright side, at least you're back, and you even got a nifty souvenir too!"

Lindsey looked at her yo-yo and smiled before she giggled:

"Really, this is more than a souvenir. It's... an ancestral weapon."

 ** _Meanwhile, with Maggie and Sam..._**

The sisters jumped through the roofs, the latter holding the former in a bridal carry while watching her step, and also the marching zombies in the distance.

"Sam, I'm glad you got us out of there when the zombies appeared, and I do agree that we need to look for Tabby," Maggie said, with slight irritation. "But do you really have to carry me like a bride all the way through?"

"You're nowhere near as athletic as I am, Maggie, and walking on the streets is definitely a no-go," Sam answered, without looking at her sister. "Besides, you're surprisingly light, so I don't have a problem carrying you-"

Then, Sam spotted somebody in the distance asking for help, and she paused, crouched down, then jumped up and threw Maggie in the sky before she leaped straight for the one calling for help. As soon as she arrived, she let out a gigantic yell that sent the zombies flying away and crashing into some buildings.

Maggie fell right back on Sam's arms afterwards, and she responded appropriately: By repeatedly pounding her head.

"Warn me before you do something like that ever again!" the goth girl yelled.

"Alright, sorry, I got caught in the moment!" Sam replied as she held Maggie in one arm, while trying to block her attacks with the other. "But I couldn't stop myself from helping a helpless kid!"

Maggie stopped the pounding. "A helpless kid?"

The sisters turned around to see the one who called for help was none other than Rocky and Rusty Spokes, the latter hugging the former for protection. It wasn't long before they opened their eyes to see the danger was gone, and they also guessed who helped them rather quickly.

"Thank you so much for driving those monsters away!" Rusty told the girls as Sam put Maggie on the ground gently. "I almost thought my brother and I were goners-"

Before he could finish, Rusty and Rocky both got smacked in the head by Sam and Maggie, who promptly snapped:

"What were you thinking staying out here in the open!? Zombies are overruning the town, you should be heading to a safe place right now!"

"We were outside when the zombies popped up, and our house is far away from here!" Rocky replied while he rubbed his head. "And besides, my brother and I couldn't stay at the sidelines when our friends are in danger!"

"Alright, I understand that, we're even doing the same thing in fact," Sam rubbed her forehead. "But you could at least try to avoid the zombies or go another way that wasn't infested with them, you know?"

The brothers exchanged looks, and Maggie added, "Listen, how about you come with us, and we'll help you look for your friends while we look for our sister?"

"Really?! That would be great!" Rocky said, with Rusty nodding in agreement. "We'll follow your lead then!"

Sam nodded, grabbed Maggie and held her in a bridal carry again before the sisters and the redheads jumped off to the rooftop, and started jumping from roof to roof again.

 ** _Back at the Park..._**

The zombies ran away from an incoming fireball before it engulfed it, roasting all but the zombies with the Lynn caste birthmark into either ashes, or skeletons. The one who shot the fireball turned out to be Proto-Lynn, who looked at the ashes in exasperation.

"Damn it, I was holding back that time!" the prototype jock growled before she turned to the skeletons. "How come you guys managed to withstand it, but the other ones didn't?!"

Proto-Lynn snapped her fingers and the ashes promptly morphed back into the zombies, who stood shivering in place as the prototype charged another fireball.

"Okay, now hold still," Proto-Lynn ordered. "This time, I'll hold back a little more."

"Knowing you, that will still prove to be too much."

The prototype jock dissipated the fireball and turned around to see Proto-Luna flying down to her side. And before she could even say anything, the proto-rocker let out a titanic scream, stripping all the zombies of their skin and rendering them into skeletons.

It also possibly gave Proto-Lynn some hearing pains.

"Damn it, warn me before you start shouting like that!" Proto-Lynn glared at her older sister. "What are you doing here, anyway!?"

"I could ask the same thing to you," Proto-Luna tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "Lucy's raising the dead without asking for your permission, and you're not hunting her down?"

"Hmph, what makes you think I didn't give her permission?" Proto-Lynn smiled and folded her arms. "Lucy and I talked about her plan after Lola and Lana "died," and we agreed to try and attempt this "teamwork" nonsense that allowed Jophiel and Hayyel to defeat them."

Proto-Luna frowned. "You're using the successors' tactics against them?"

"In a way, yeah, but also not really; We're doing our own things while also working together for a common goal," Proto-Lynn answered. "And we also set up a specific rule: We won't interfere with the other unless things get really dire, or we mess with each other's fields. So if Lucy kills someone, or I bring someone back to life, then the deal is off."

Proto-Lynn narrowed her eyes. "Now I'll ask again, what are you doing here?"

Proto-Luna smiled, raised her hand, and charged an oddly moon-like sphere of energy as she answered:

"Setting up the atmosphere."

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Hello everybody, Bun-Bun here!"

The scene showed the news van arriving, and the Loud parents and teacher trio coming out of there, before the van drove off. And almost instantly afterward, some zombies came out of the ground.

"According to Master Lincoln, zombies seem to have popped out of the ground."

The scene changed, showing Lincoln getting ready to nap, to try and trigger a vision of the past.

"Master Lincoln has the idea to get a vision to see what's going on..."

The boy closed his eyes, and he did enter the vision... where he was standing on top of several kinds of bones: Ribs, skulls, and so on. And then he looked at the distance and saw a skeletal beast being formed.

"But there's no possible alternative: This is definitely Proto-Lucy's doing!"

The boy snapped awake from the dream, and one scene later, he was downstairs with his sisters, Clyde, Ronnie Anne, Chandler, Lindsey, and Penelope.

"Not only that, but the Sadie Hawkins girls are missing, too..."

The next scene showed the girls themselves waking up inside a prison of sorts, with Silas standing behind some bars.

"Just what is Proto-Lucy planning?"

Next, the boy left, and the quartet turned around to see Proto-Luan entering the place as the living rabbit toy narrated:

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Back at the Loud House, everybody tried to think of a plan to fight back against the apocalypse.

" _The Atmosphere is Set! An Artificial Night That Never Ends?!_ "

While that happened, Lincoln saw Lisa arrive, and they shared a dialogue as the toddler handed something to the boy.

"Don't miss it!"

Finally, Lynn and Lucy exchanged looks, and the Ars Loudia was dropped on the table, getting everybody's attention.


	35. Lunar Atmosphere

**Okay, no time for any witty dialogue, at least now, I'm gonna be blunt: I'm taking a little break next week. That means that this Monday through Sunday, I'm not going to upload or update anything whatsoever.**

 **My reasoning for this? Well, there are many, but the most important is to try give myself some more time to get the stories finished, before I find myself stumped/stuck on getting things done, especially if something comes up and I can't work on anything.**

 **Btw, while we're here, there's something I'd like to ask: What is the longest Loud House fanfic on this site? I read about a fanfic that was over four million words or something, and while I doubt there's any fanfic in the LH archive that's that long, I do find it a bit odd that the biggest ones I've seen aren't bigger than two hundred thousand words.**

 **Well, that went longer than expected. XD**

 **Now, let's get this quickly done, to the reviews:**

 **1) Nobody245:**

 *** Proto-Luna only said she was gonna add some atmopshere.**

 *** We already talked about this, but if any of the Proto-Sisters get saved by Lincoln, that could be comedy only rivaled by Luan's ancient novel. More context later down the line.**

 **2) Observant Guest:**

 *** And one of those truths is the Clyde/Penelope pairing.**

 *** Yeah, poor girl, she only has Lincoln and Clyde as friends. Now ex-friends, she has quite a lot...**

 *** Stella and Ronnie Anne: Two sides of the same coin. Except, of course, one is getting a spin-off, and the other is Ronnie Anne. XD**

 *** Yeah, that's called a retcon, I believe.**

 *** Yeah, I can see why some of those themes would remind you of Hans Zimmer, especially Symposium Magarum.**

 *** And the sisters. Can't forget about the sisters (No matter how much we want to sometimes).**

 *** Yup, there's more beasts coming up.**

 *** When was that talked about?**

 *** Yup, and now the question is, what was Proto-Lola doing with it?**

 *** Yeah, you're getting all that here. (Well, maybe not everything, but most of it.)**

 **And now, to the chapter.**

* * *

 **Episode 35: The Atmosphere is Set! An Artificial Night That Never Ends?!**

* * *

At the entrance to Royal Woods, the news van drove through the gate and parked nearby. From both the side doors and the back door, the teacher trio, the Loud parents, and Pacowski came out, all wearing their powered armors from before.

"Thanks for giving us a ride back to Royal Woods, Mrs. Sweetwater," Mrs. Johnson told the newswoman as she walked to the passenger's seat.

"No, I should be thanking you for letting Becky use the clouds for a headstart!" Catherine answered before she turned to the exhausted Becky right next to her. "I never thought I'd see the day where the van would literally fly in the sky!"

"And you're never going to see it again, so I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted," Becky replied in the middle of catching her breath. "Sis, give me a couple minutes to take a breather and I'll join you soon-"

"You're not coming with us, Becky."

The duo flinched and turned to Mrs. Johnson as she explained:

"You and Catherine are going to drive out of here. Whether you stay at the outskirts of the city, or head back to the organization doesn't matter, but you can't stay here, got it?"

"Wait, that's not fair!" Becky stated, with Catherine nodding in agreement. "You get to stay here and protect the city while I go away from the danger?! I got somebody to protect too!"

"The girl you were assigned as the caretaker for?" Mrs. Johnson raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure she can handle herself, like everybody else in this city-"

"Whether she can handle herself means _nothing_ with an event as extreme as this one!" Becky exclaimed. "Besides, Catherine's own family might also be at risk!"

Upon hearing that, Catherine immediately narrowed her eyes in determination and drove the van deeper into the town, with Mrs. Johnson barely getting to say "Wait!" before they left.

"Well, I guess you should've seen that coming, Johnson," Rita remarked with a shrug, earning an exasperated look from the teacher. "We were all sent here to protect the city, after all."

"I know, but... seeing the type of progenitor we're dealing with, I was hoping we could minimize the potential casualties," Mrs. Johnson sighed as she rubbed her temples. "At least they'll hopeful know better than to get closer to some zombies straight ahead."

As if on cue, zombies started sprouting from the ground.

"And speaking about zombies, here are some of them!" Mrs. Johnson sternly stated before she turned to the Loud parents. "Rita! Lynn! Head to your house as fast as you can! We'll deal with the zombies and whatever else the progenitors throw at us!"

The parents nodded and ran off as fast as they could, while the teacher trio and Pacowski ran off to face off against the undead invaders.

 ** _Meanwhile, at the Loud House... in Lincoln's bedroom..._**

The boy rested on his bed and looked at the ceiling, getting ready to take a quick nap. Not because the current situation calmed him down, it was the freaking zombie apocalypse for crying out loud, but because he had an idea.

"Okay, last two times I slept before the progenitors attacked, I had a vision of them before everything fell apart," Lincoln said to himself as he mentally prepared himself for whatever he would see next. "It might be happening right now, but I should still be able to get a vision or something."

Lincoln narrowed his eyes with determination. "And the faster I find out who's responsible for this, the better!"

The boy closed his eyes and took a nap. And as if on cue, a vision occurred.

In the vision, Lincoln was in the middle of a black room, with a floor that felt a little... different, than everything else he felt before. And once he looked down, he noticed why:

The floor was covered with several bones: Ribs, skulls, finger bones, every single part of multiple skeletons were laying on the floor, basically. Luckily, they weren't covered in blood and viscera.

This made the boy take a step back and gasp, which was followed by a voice cheerfully greeting:

"Oh, hi Lincoln."

The boy looked in front of him and saw a small sphere of light... light up a space of the room, revealing Proto-Lucy sitting on the floor, while holding a ribcage.

"I'll play with you in a minute, I just need to finish getting the necessary bones for my project."

The girl ripped off a rib from the ribcage, making the guy wince.

"L-Lucy... what are you doing?" he asked with a clearly disturbed tone. "What's with all these bones? Where did you even get them?"

"I'm surprised you're more interested in where the bones came from, rather than why they're not covered in blood," Proto-Lucy remarked as she casually ripped off another rib. "But then again, since blood manipulation's one of my powers, you probably put two and two together."

"Answer me already!" Lincoln snapped, stomping the ground. "What do you need all these bones for, and where did you even get them!?"

"I got them from dead people, of course," Proto-Lucy nonchalantly answered. "There's been a huge rise of them all across the multiverse ever since our sisters started acting weird."

Then, she threw an angry look at her brother. "Unless, of course, you'd happen to have something to do with that?"

Lincoln's mood changed from angry to concerned. "Our sisters have been acting weird?"

"Yeah, you know, acting different than usual?" Proto-Lucy ripped off another rib. "They've started acting a bit more... how do I put this? They act like they're in a constant fight for dominance over one thing or another. For example, Lola and Lisa have been fighting over who should possess the philosopher's stone."

" _The legendary stone that can turn base metals into gold or silver, and also grant rejuvenation and immortality?!_ " Lincoln thought in disbelief. " _That thing existed in the original reality?!_ "

"And Lana and Luan have been fighting over who should rule over Atlantis," Proto-Lucy continued, letting out a chuckle. "I even remember one time, Lana argued that if Luan wasn't careful with her puns, she might quip something so bad it'll sink the city in an instant! That was hilarious, you should've been there."

" _Okay, ignoring the obvious hints that the corruption is hitting the sisters, Proto-Lucy here seems a bit too cheerful, considering the whole bones thing she's got going,_ " Lincoln thought before he turned to Proto-Lucy and asked, "And why are you so cheerful about this, Lucy? Shouldn't you be a little bit more disturbed at the fact there's enough dead people to fill your room with their bones?"

Proto-Lucy paused her ribcage-breaking process and turned around to face Lincoln as she answered, with an unchanging smile:

"Lincoln, I'm the Goddess of Death and everything related to endings. I can see the death of anybody in any universe, and have witnessed just as many deaths, regardless of whether I orchestrated them, or had no say in. Friends, family, even you yourself Lincoln, I've seen all kinds of people die, and after a million deaths, I just grew... apathetic about it."

Though Lincoln took a step back in shock, he could see where the girl was coming from. After all, when your job is to watch over the dead and you can see how long somebody has until they die, there's little reason to get attached to them.

Didn't stop Proto-Lucy from being creepy as hell, though.

"Okay, and what are all these bones for?" Lincoln asked, while grabbing one of said bones. "Surely, you're not just planning to make bread with them?"

"No, all of that "food" and "sustenance" thing is still in development, remember?" Proto-Lucy replied casually. "I'm gathering these bones in order to finish a little project of mine."

The girl giggled, and then snapped her fingers, causing the lights to go out and making the entire room pitch black. Mere moments after that, the lights turned back on, and Proto-Lucy now stood right next to her brother as he witnessed the "project" she was talking about.

It was a giant skeletal creature, with the head, arms, and torso partially formed, with several skeletons walking around it and placing pieces of themselves into it, reforging and upgrading it little by little.

"Isn't it beautiful? It's a massive skeleton with the power to affect the afterlife, and once it's finished, we'll be able to use it in order to reach the heavens, take back all those who died, and eventually figure out a way to bring them back into the living world for real!" Proto-Lucy remarked as she looked at the beast with pride. "Sure, me using the dead bodies to create something like this might be a little messed up, but it's rather poetic when you think about it."

Lincoln said nothing, for he was far too horrified at what he was seeing. It was bad enough that the thing looked like a giant skeleton, the fact Proto-Lucy planned to use it to access the afterlife itself only made him fear of the possibilities this could mean.

"I named him Gashadokuro, by the way," Proto-Lucy blurted, returning the boy to reality. "And before you ask, don't worry about the eyes and other stuff needed to get it moving: I know how to deal with that issue."

Lincoln turned to the girl and raised an eyebrow. "You do?"

"Yeah, but I'm afraid..." Proto-Lucy reached for her back and took out a knife. "I'll need your help for that-"

As soon as he noticed the knife, Lincoln generated an orange energy blade from his hand and swung it right on Proto-Lucy's eyes, ending the vision just as Lincoln woke up and started breathing heavily.

He calmed down a little when he saw he was back in his room, and Bun-Bun was right by his side, but it would take a little bit longer to forget what he saw.

"Master Lincoln, are you okay?" Bun-Bun asked as he ran to the boy's side. "You had another vision, didn't you?"

The boy took a couple more breaths before he glanced at the sentient toy, then asked, "Bun-Bun, can I ask you something?"

The toy tilted their head. "Is it related to the vision you just had?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Lincoln sighed as he grabbed his head. "It's something that I need to ask you about now, okay?"

"Well, if that's the case, then of course you can ask me anything, Master Lincoln," the living toy answered. "My main purpose, and joy, is to fulfill your every wish, even at the expense of any personality or relationship with other people."

"...Listen, when I checked Lori's training with Luna and Luan, I saw Luna getting beaten up, and... I don't know how to explain it, but I just felt something surging through me," Lincoln rested his chin on his palm and looked at Bun-Bun. "And before I knew it, I snapped at Lori, and I was almost giving off the same aura as Sincoln."

Bun-Bun frowned as the boy finished with a question: "Do you have any idea of what happened to me back then?"

"Well, there are two options I can think of right now," the toy answered. "The first one is that this volatile aura and attitude was done by the boy you call Sincoln, as a way to try and make it look like you were growing a spine."

"Hmm, that sounds likely," Lincoln scratched his chin. "Sincoln does look like the type to go pretty far in order to make people take him seriously. What's the other option?"

"You yourself unconsciously did it as a result of both stress and frustration," Bun-Bun answered. "Because you have to admit, my lord, you're already dealing with a lot of stressful stuff like the progenitors, and adding you own sisters fighting each other into the mix, it was just a matter of time before you snapped."

Lincoln looked back at the ceiling. "A matter of time before I snapped, huh?"

Just as Lincoln thought about it, however, Lori's voice called him from downstairs:

"Lincoln! Some of your other friends are here to see you!"

"Other friends? Is she talking about Zach, Rusty, and Liam?" Lincoln asked himself as he got off his bed. "Why would they want to come here? They'd be safer back at their own homes."

The boy went downstairs, and once there, he found Penelope, Chandler, and Lindsey were on the living room alongside Ronnie Anne, Clyde, and most of his sisters. Chandler and Clyde were talking about something, while Penelope and Ronnie Anne ocassionally glanced at each other angrily before they looked away.

"Oh, hi Lincoln," Clyde greeted as soon as he and Chandler spotted him. "We were waiting for you."

"Hi guys," Lincoln greeted. "Clyde, Ronnie Anne, why are you still here? I thought you would've gone home by now."

"Lori said it's too dangerous to go outside," Ronnie Anne answered, rolling her eyes. "So, we're staying here for the moment."

"Wait a minute, so the zombie apocalypse is happening, and instead of heading back home as soon as you can, you guys plan to stay at my house?" Lincoln recapped, earning a nod from the duo. "Okay then, but why?"

"Besides the obvious answer that both our houses are a bit too far away for a safe trip, we figured you were about to think of a plan to fight the situation," Clyde explained, adjusting his glasses as he added, "And we'll offer you a hand in whatever way we can."

"However, Chandler, Penelope, and the redheaded girl arrived here out of nowhere," Ronnie Anne added, pointing at the particular trio. "They literally crashed through the door, and since it seemed a bit too cruel to shove them back outside into the apocalypse, they'll be staying here for a while as well."

Ronnie Anne looked at Chandler. "Even if we're not exactly okay with the idea."

"We'll help you however we can too, Lincoln," Chandler stated as he walked to the boy. "We just ask that you let us hide here for a while."

"It's okay, but, while I don't doubt that this house is perfectly good place to hide," Lincoln scratched his chin and looked at the ceiling. "I get the feeling that there's still a group or two that could hide here as well..."

Lori frowned, having a good idea on what group Lincoln was talkingabout:

The Sadie Hawkins quartet.

 ** _Speaking of them..._**

Tabby, Giggles, Haiku, and Polly Pain slowly woke up, feeling a little headache at the side of their heads.

"Ugh, what happened?" Giggles asked, grabbing her head. "Last thing I remember is a boy that looked like Haiku, accompanied by zombie versions of our friends, kidnapping us or something."

"Silas looks nothing like me!" Haiku snapped, only to realize something. "Wait, now that I mention him, where is he?"

"I'm right here."

The quartet turned around and saw Silas standing behind some bars. The girls immediately ran towards the bars, with Haiku going so far as to grab the bars and pull them.

"Silas! Oh my Lucy, I'm glad you're okay!" Haiku said as she continued pulling the bars. "Listen, I don't know what's going on, but we'll get you out of here-"

"I'm sorry to tell you this, girls, but _I'm_ not the one trapped here," Silas answered somberly. "You see, in this world... _you're_ the prisoners."

Upon hearing that, Haiku stopped pulling and released the bars. "What do you mean we're the prisoners?"

"You're trapped inside this realm, place, whatever this is supposed to be," Silas explained with a somber tone. "It was created by Progenitor Luan in order to put you through somes test, to determine whether you lived up to the standard of the new world, or if you need to be "discliplined" into it. That's all she told me, and all I'm allowed to tell you."

"Something tells me one thing about your explanation isn't true, and I feel it's the "living up to the standard" thing," Tabby sternly remarked. "Listen, Haiku's friend, you just beat us up with some zombie versions of our friends; Where the heck are they?"

"Serving as fuel for the Gashadokuro, of course," Silas rolled his eyes before he folded his arms and looked at the ground. "Their skeletons will probably greatly strengthen it, what with being Louds and all."

Giggles frowned. "You don't sound too happy about it, though. You're not okay with it, are you?"

"My opinion on the matter means nothing to the progenitors: They have a plan, and they're going to go through it no matter what," Silas put his hands on his hips. "The only thing I can promise you is that, my progenitor and Progenitor Lynn made an specific agreement, and if it's broken, Progenitor Lynn will do everything in her power to make Mother Lucy pay."

Shortly after that, a demented laugh echoed across the place, signalling Proto-Luan's incoming arrival. Silas and the dates looked at the sky, and the boy looked at the dates before he turned around and walked away.

Then he stopped, took out a spades-like object from his pocket, and looked back at the dates before he ran away.

Before the girls could complain about that, however, Proto-Luan flew down, sporting a cape that blew in the wind, and a ring held on her left hand.

"Mother Luan..." Giggles frowned.

"Don't call me by that name, child," Proto-Luan bluntly hissed as she hit the ground. "You're nothing but an imitation, a joke, of the child I lost."

The clown girl narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth as Proto-Luan asked, "Anyway, I believe you're wondering why you're here?"

"Well, yeah, we do!" Tabby growled, stomping the ground. "What are you planning to do with us, you sicko?"

The prototype rolled her eyes. "Geez, I figured a girl who spoke in British slang when angry would be more polite."

Proto-Luan threw her ring up, snapped her fingers, and it split into four. It then caught the girls by their waists and transported them to separate rooms as the prototype explained:

"You see, the old and new world aren't the only things with rules that everybody must follow: The corruption that caused the death of the old world and the birth of the new world, has rules as well. The corruption couldn't be fought directly. It couldn't be reasoned with. The only thing people could do with it, was overcome it, or resist it."

The prototype joker stopped, turned to face the quartet through screens that materialized in their ooms out of nowhere, and bluntly revealed:

"Simply put, in this new world, those with a strong will can resist and overpower the corruption, saving themselves from a horrible fate."

The prototype smirked with malicious intent.

"But those with a weak will shall succumb to the darkness the corruption brings, and turn into the very beast they deserve to be!"

Tabby clenched her fist and stomped the ground. "That's pure nonsense!"

"Yeah!" Giggles exclaimed in agreement. "Nobody deserves to be corrupted into a mindless monster!"

"Not even a group of rebels that did nothing to help the war effort?" Proto-Luan sternly pointed out, while throwing a look of disgust at the girls. "A group of rebels who, mind you, betrayed one of their own, and joined forces with her replacement?"

While Haiku and Giggles flinched and took a step back, Tabby and Polly Pain stood their ground.

"Xenia... or as she's better known as Cristina, would've rather watch the entire world burn if it meant making Lincoln suffer for replacing her!" Polly Pain argued, with the rest of the team nodding in agrement. "We couldn't just stand still and see our friends die, and still call ourselves good people!"

"Ronnie Anne at least tried to help!" Tabby added. "We didn't betray Cristina: She betrayed her entire purpose as Xenia!"

Proto-Luan remained silent for a moment, then scratched her chin as she spoke:

"Interesting, I was just talking to see your reactions, but it seems that more than your reactions, I saw that you indeed have the same mental illness everybody in the new world has."

The Sadie Hawkins quartet winced as they asked in unison, "Mental illness?!"

"The idea that you, copies of the original people, possess their memories as well," Proto-Luan rubbed her forehead. "Such an idea is not only absurd, but offensive. You're imitations created to replace the beings that Lincoln killed. You're not supposed to have their memories."

Just as the quartet thought about that, Proto-Luan shrugged.

"But, oh well, none of that matters now. By the time I'm finished with you, you'll be lucky to remember that stuff."

She then turned to look at Tabby, Giggles, Haiku, and Polly Pain, in that order.

"Storge... Philia... Eros... Agape..."

Proto-Luan raised her arms, parting the curtains and revealing the true, madness-defining void that was the tent as she proclaimed:

"Let's see how you fare in this test of willpower!"

 ** _Back at the Loud House..._**

The Loud sisters available had gathered with Chandler, Penelope, Lindsey, Clyde, and Ronnie Anne, and were discussing what to do about the zombie apocalypse. As for Lincoln, he played with the pets while he looked at the discussion.

"Okay, we could fly up as using the clouds, and take a good look at the city from the skies," Chandler said, scratching his chin.

"Nope, that wouldn't work," Lucy remarked, shaking her head. "This is the zombie apocalypse we're dealing with: It's a common plot in the horror movies, so we should try to act like a horror movie too. And splitting the team, is one of the worst decisions anybody could do in a horror movie!"

"But if we have to think like a horror movie, then what would that mean for the ones who aren't used to seeing those kind of movies?" Luan asked, getting everybody's attention. "And what would that man for me, who's supposed to be the comic relief?!"

"Well, you have a decent chance of being killed," Clyde pointed out, shaking his head as he added, "But hey, at least you have a better chance at surviving: Being a black character, I'm likely going to be the first to die."

"Hey, look at the bright side, at least you might die doing something cool like defending everybody," Ronnie Anne remaked, trying to cheer up Clyde. "Me? I'll probably only get to look cool and promise to bring some awesome action, before I disappoint everybody when I die without much fanfare."

"That last one actually sounds pretty likely," Chandler quipped. "Who knows, people might even rejoice at the death of a bully."

"By that logic, people would rejoice at your and Penelope's deaths too," Ronnie Anne retorted. "You're co-rulers of all bullies, after all."

And as the bully trio continued to talk, Lincoln continued watching the reunion, sighing sadly at the fact he couldn't join in. Mostly because he still needed to recover from what he saw in his vision.

"Since the vision was about Proto-Lucy, then whatever I saw in that vision has to be the reason she's making zombies rise from their graves," Lincoln said to himself. "But, if the thing's made entirely out of bones, why would she need to resurrect zombies? Wouldn't it be better to just make their skeletons rise?"

"Well, which would you rather deal with?" Charles telepathically asked. "A rotting resurrected corpse that can at least be defeated through holy means or fire or whatever, or a living skeleton, which is definitely harder to pierce and damage?"

Lincoln scratched his chin. "

And then the boy realized something: "Wait, I can understand you?!"

"Of course you can, Master Lincoln."

The boy flinched and moved back as he turned around to see Bun-Bun standing nearby. "When did you arrive, Bun-Bun?"

"You spent a long time down here, and I got worried," the toy answered as he walked to the boy's side. "Anyway, as I was saying, of course you can understand an "animal" like Charles, Master Lincoln."

Lincoln raised an eyebrow. "Why do you say "animal" like that?"

"Not important. Anyway, I'll continue: You're not just one of the progenitors who ruled over the world, but you're the only progenitor with the ability to copy the abilities of others!" Bun-Bun explained further. "The reason you can talk with Charles right now is because you're copying Master Lana's ability to talk with animals!"

"But to copy it, that means I would need a basis for it, and I never saw her talking to Charles," Lincoln thought about it and scratched his head. "At least, I don't remember seeing her do that."

"You're a literal god, Lincoln," Cliff telepathically said while he licked his paw. "You can practically do anything that's physically possible, all you have to do is shed this "I can't do anything" attitude, and you'd go from "useless" to "almight."

"Yeah, I mean, what kind of god, a being whose far above mortal entities, let something as simple as "poor self-esteem" get in their way?" Waltz questioned, somehow shrugging with his wings. "Who cares if your early life was terrible? You have the power

"Okay, being able to talk to you guys has turned from "fascinating" to "annoying," Lincoln bluntly stated. "I'm glad only Lana and I can do this, so nobody else has to deal with it."

"Then I'll cancel my plans for an "animal conversation" project."

The boy and the pets flinched and turned around, only to find the source of the scare was none other than Lisa, who was holding a clipboard.

"Sorry for imitating Lucy right there, but I wanted to give you something that I didn't give you when I had the chance," the scientist handed the clipboard to the boy. "It's the results of my research on the caste's abilities."

Lincoln turned to the audience and said as he handed the girl a white chocolate, "Hey, we can't spare an entire chapter or arc to minor stuff like this."

Then he turned back to Lisa, who looked at the sisters' reunion with a concerned look. "What's wrong, Lisa?"

"I'm... a bit scared to enter the conversation over there," the toddler twiddled her fingers. "Ever since Luna called me out for "leaving Lily defenseless," I've become a bit more... cautious, about anything that she takes part in-"

"Lisa, that means you're not so much scared of joining the reunion," Lincoln rubbed his genius sister's hair. "But you're scared that doing so will make Luna scold you again, right?"

Lisa looked elsewhere and nodded. "Our musical sister can be a little scary when she's angry."

And then, without warning, Lori's birthmark glew for a couple seconds before it generated a screen from it, showing a nervous Bobby on the other end.

"Lori, can you hear me?!" Bobby nervously asked on the screen. "Repeat, Lori, can you hear me?!"

"We can hear you loud and clear, Bobby," Lori said as the rest of the group tried to get a closer look at the screen. "Me, the rest of my family, Clyde, and Ronnie Anne."

"Oh, Ronnie Anne's with you?!" Bobby took a deep breath of relief. "Oh, thank goodness, for a second I thought she was out again."

"I was, but I quickly ran to the Louds' house when the sky darkened," Ronnie Anne answered. "Anyway, how's the family doing?! Are they alright?!"

"Yeah, they're holding their own against the zombies," Bobby hastily shook his head. "But more importantly, I need to tell you something that I found out about the progenitor's plan!"

Lori raised an eyebrow. "You found out something about Proto-Lucy's plan on your own?"

"Well, it's less "found out on my own" and more "was told about it by a progenitor," Bobby sheepishly clarified. "Anyway, the reason the zombies have started popping up, is because she wants to use them in order to summon a primordial beast to strike the afterlife!"

Lori gasped and rubbed her forehead, messing with the communication in the process.

"Ugh, we're going to have to deal with another primordial beast?!" the young woman complained. "The hydra was already a handful!"

"Yeah, sitting at the sidelines and watching everybody deal with it must take quite a lot out of you," Ronnie Anne remarked sternly. "Anyway, what else did you find, Bobby?"

"I'm afraid that's all they told me," Bobby answered. "However, we'll keep you posted in case we find out anything else. And also, how are you doing over there?"

"We're fine, the house has been blocked off, and everybody here is feeling fine," Lori answered, before she remembered something and frowned. "Well, except for Lynn, who's been at the bathroom for a while now..."

"Now that you mention it, I should probably go check up on her," Lucy said as she got off the couch and went upstairs. "Who knows how she's holding up."

"She's probably doing fine, right?" Luan suggested with a little, concerned smile. "I mean, this is Lynn we're talking about! It would take a lot for her to even start breaking."

 ** _Speaking of Lynn..._**

Like Lori just said, Lynn was at the bathroom, looking at her reflection in the mirror. However, her look was one of horror and shock, which remained frozen on her face as she moved her hand closer to the burnt half of her face.

And as soon as she touched it, she winced in pain.

"Yeah, that confirms it, my own attack really did hurt me," Lynn said while she caught her breath. "Not only that, but it also burnt me!"

Just then, Lucy arrived in the bathroom just as Lynn looked back at the mirror, and spotted the goth girl.

"Lynn... a-are you okay?" the goth girl nervously asked.

"No, Lucy, my own attack actually hurt me!" Lynn answered, looking strictly at the mirror. "Do you see these burn marks on my face? That was caused by my own attack! Do you know what this means?!"

Lucy got ready to say something, but she hesitated and twiddled her fingers as Lynn continued:

"Lucy, if my own attacks can hurt me, then that means the same could be said for your attacks! Luna, Luan, Lori, everybody's attacks could hurt them despite being the one who casted them!"

"Yeah, that doesn't sound so good," Lucy scratched the back of her head. "But as long as we train, we should be able to get the hang of them, right?"

"That's only if we have enough time to train at all!" Lynn replied, stomping the ground. "I mean, think about it: A couple weeks ago, Lola's copycat attacked, and a couple days after that, Lana's impostor struck! And assuming I'm not jumping to conclusions, we're about to be attacked by your own faker!

And then, Lynn remembered something that brought a smile to her face:

"But we have the Ars Loudia!"

And Lucy promptly remembered something else:

"Well, about that..."

 ** _Back Downstairs..._**

Lynn lifted the Ars Loudia and dropped it on the table, with it catching everybody's attention: Some, like Luna, were completely shocked, while others, like Lindsey, were intrigued.

"What the heck is this thing?!" Luna asked before she turned to the duo. "And how long have you had it?!"

"Long story short, we found it while searching for stuff in the attic," Lynn bluntly stated. "And it might have just what we need to survive this little apocalypse!"

The jock opened the book and started surfing through its content as she explained, "This book has information on the progenitors, surely it has some information on how to deal with their plans too!"

Before Lynn could find the page she was looking for, Luna snatched the book and closed it with a stern look.

"Okay, that's an idea, but before we check this thing," Luna narrowed her eyes and handed the book to Lori. "How long have you had this, and why didn't you tell us about it before?!"

As Lucy and Lynn tried to think of how to answer the rocker's question, Lori threw the book at Lisa, and then a wink at her once she caught it.

"There just wasn't time to tell you about it!" Lynn answered, getting in front of Lucy. "I mean, we first had to go to the pageant, and shortly after that, nobody was in the mood to talk about anything. And then came the beach, and you know how insane that was!"

"And what about the week before the zombies popped up, huh?!" Luna pointed out. "You had several days to bring this thing up, and you didn't do anything!"

Lynn and Lucy exchanged concerned looks, and as they got ready to say their final words, Lisa blurted out loud:

"This book has an entire section about corruption! From how it happened to the forms taken by the corrupted!"

"Is that really important now?" Chandler inquired, folding his arms. "Right now, we're dealing with the zombie apocalypse, not corruption."

"Well, if you think about it, a zombie's kind of a corruption of a dead body, right?" Lucy argued. "I mean, somebody uses magic or something else in order to bring back to "life" a body that should've gone to the afterlife by then. That counts as corruption, right?"

Lincoln saved his hands on his pockets and rolled his eyes. "I guess your counterpart would know that better than anybody else."

Unfortunately, as the boy said that out loud, this caught everybody's attention, including a worried Lucy. "What do you mean by that, Lincoln?"

"Oh... uh... well..." Lincoln stuttered. "H-How do I put this? You see-"

Suddenly, the ground shook, and everybody ran outside to see what was going on. Once outside, they saw a giant sphere of energy fly up to the sky, before it released some sort of energy from its top, which went on to surrounded the city inside a night-like barrier.

Lisa promptly turned to Bun-Bun and asked, "Bun-Bun, do you have any idea what's going on?!"

"It appears to be a sky-like barrier encompassing all of Royal Woods, and enveloping in a scenery similar to nighttime," the living toy explained. "I believe this is a technique developed both by masters Leni and Luna: The Eternal Night Dome."

"Leni and I made this?" Luna blurted in disbelief.

"What does it do?!" Lisa asked the sentient toy. "And how do we get rid of it?!"

"As the name implies, "The Eternal Night Dome" surrounds the given area, in this case Royal Woods, in a near-impenetrable barrier that subjects the area to a night that never ends: The sun never rises, and the moon never lowers," Bun-Bun explained as he looked at the artificial moon in the sky. "The only real way to undo it is to convince whoever summoned it to cancel it, or to overpower the barrier and shattering it to pieces."

"If we're dealing with a progenitor, then talking things out won't work," Clyde remarked, who turned to Lincoln just as he tried to say something, "And no, Lincoln, third time's not the charm, sorry."

Lincoln narrowed his eyes and lowered his head, with Ronnie Anne patting his back as she said, "Don't worry, Lame-O, you'll eventually find someone who's willing to listen."

Lori looked up at the artificial night and took a couple steps forward. She scratched her chin as she thought for a plan, and as soon as she got an idea, she stated:

"Okay, this is what we're going to do: Everybody will group up, spread across Royal Woods, and literally destroy the zombies before they get a chance to gather and summon the primordial beast! Everybody got that?!"

Everybody nodded, with Lincoln hesitating a bit before nodding as well.

"Then let's go!"

With that said, everybody flew off to try and deal with everything that was going on, promptly throwing away the whole "let's stay in the house 'cause it's safer" idea. Not only that, but Lily, Lisa, and the pets were left all alone. Oh, and Bun-Bun was there too.

And then, without much warning, a portal opened and from there came out a peculiar group: Carol, Leni, Lola, and Lana.

"Second oldest, second youngest, and third youngest sister units, and Carol, you're back!" Lisa exclaimed in joy, only to add in exasperation, "Where the heck have you been?!"

"That's a long story that's not important to the plot right now," Leni answered as she looked at the skies. "Right now, it looks like we returned at just the right time."

"Just the right time?! You arrived too late!" Lisa snapped. "In case you haven't noticed, the entire city is covered in a nightlike dome!"

"Lisa, it'll only be too late when Proto-Lucy manages to summon the Gashadokuro," Leni answered, winking at the scientist as she added, "And believe me, that's not gonna happen."

Lisa threw a confused look at the audience as Leni spoke with the twins:

"Okay, you two, people all around are probably being attacked by zombies as we speak. Split up, and help repel the invasion."

The twins nodded and flew off to help repel the invasion, while Leni turned her attention to Carol:

"As for you, Carol, I need you to go to "you-know-where" and check up on whoever's inside."

Once Carol thought about it, she realized the you-know-where was actually the Lincolnism church... which admittedly confused her.

"Okay, but why?" she asked.

"Knowing the progenitors, they won't discriminate, and will hurt even their own followers to get what they want," Leni stated. "Carol, go to the you-know-where and make sure everybody's fine. Once you're done with that, I'll leave Lucy to you."

Carol raised an eyebrow. "What about you?"

The fashionista smiled slyly. "I'll pay an old friend a visit."

The duo nodded, and promptly flew off to their respective goals, leaving Lisa, Lily, and the pets alone yet again.

"Looks like we'll be sitting out on this one too, Lily," Lisa remarked.

Lily blew a raspberry, and Lisa nodded. "I wholeheartedly agree..."

Then the scientist and the toddler laughed out loud. Lisa then activated her jet boots and took Lily to the laboratory, stating:

"As if we're going to miss this! Come on, Lily! Let's get your mecha ready for action!"

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Hi everybody, Lynn here!"

The first scene showed the parents jumping from rooftop to rooftop, looking for their children.

"Well, you can consider me utterly stumped."

Next scene showed Luan and Lucy on top of a building, watching some zombies marching straight to some location.

"Not only does one of the zombies manage to throw my attack back at me..."

One change later, and the scene now showed Luna and Lori approaching the source of the eternal night dome: An artificial moon.

"But there's a massive done covering Royal Woods in an eternal night of sorts!"

And shortly after that, Proto-Luna entered the scene, sharing a dialogue with Luna as Lynn narrated:

"Which, now that I think about it, makes me think there might be more than one progenitor at play..."

Meanwhile, Lynn and Clyde engaged some zombies in combat, before Proto-Lynn came out of nowhere and kicked the boy straight through some buildings.

"Dang it, this might be the craziest mess we've faced yet!"

Shortly after that, Lynn and Clyde reunited, and prepared to face Proto-Lynn together.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

At Great Lakes City, Carlota and the club member continued to fight until a particular Loud sibling interjected: Leni, who engaged with a bit of chatter with the club member as Lynn narrated the title:

" _Duality Between the Sun and the Moon! Where is the Gashadokuro going to Spawn?!_ "

Shortly after that statement, shots of Lori and Luna fighting with Proto-Luna, Ronnie Anne and Chandler fighting some zombies, and Proto-Luan flashing a sadistic smile.

"Don't miss it!"

Finally, Proto-Lucy aimed her palm at Luan and Lucy, who looked shocked.


	36. Sun and Moon

**Hello everybody, Exotos135 here! We come back from the little hiatus I had with another chapter of Chains of Reality.**

 **Yes, I know this isn't the first chapter I post since the hiatus.**

 **Anyway, I got good news for you guys! I have completed the full Proto-Lucy arc by the time you're reading this. The grand finale is finished, and the prologue has also been written. Might add a few things here and there if I feel they fit, but overall, the arc is finished.**

 **Another set of good news is that all the chapters up until the prologue have the next chapter preview finished, so the only thing left for me to do is respond to the reviews I get.**

 **How many chapters are left? Well, the arc ends in chapter 42, and the prologue is in chapter 43, so... you decide.**

 **Like usual, let's answer some reviews:**

 **1) Nobody245:**

 *** Yeah, I'm sure there'll be a bunch of action on this chapter. Then again, if you count talking as "action," then we've had quite a lot of that too, right? XD**

 *** Your wait has been rewarded, adventurer! :)**

 *** Well, some of the Proto-Sisters began the mess before he did.**

 *** The Proto-Sisters were completely closed off in the remains of the original reality for billions of years, to the point they probably went numb for a good majority of those years, and you have to remember that most prototypes look notably different from the finished product. Even if they could humor the idea that other prototypes are in the dimension, they have no way of knowing who are the prototypes and who are the neophilim.**

 **** Add-on for the last point: Proto-Tabby is kind of an exception to the rule, but we need to wait and see how the rest of the Proto-Dates look. Hey, maybe that's something I could add...**

 **2) Observant Guest:**

 *** I'm just gonna say it right now: Ronnie Anne will get new friends, in fact she's already kinda getting those with the Sadie Hawkins dates.**

 *** I guess they're going to see if they can get another spin-off from her? I mean, it worked for Ronnie Anne somehow.**

 *** I've actually written a few fanfics about Stella: One with Mrs. Johnson, one with Clyde, one with Lisa, one with Lincoln. But none with Ronnie Anne, so I guess I could try to write that next, thanks for the idea. :)**

 *** If a Lincoln lovechild has only now been brought up, something's definitely fishy. Like why aren't they in this fanfic yet? XD**

 *** I see, yeah, I guess I can see the resemblance.**

 *** Yeah, we had the hydra, now we have the gashadokuro, who knows what other insane monstrosity they'll face next time?!**

 *** That implication was in the Proto-Lana arc, yes, but it was brought up by _Flip_ of all people, so it'd be understandable to take it with a grain of salt.**

 *** I can see why you would: There's something eerie about this tune.**

 *** Silas is from Lucy's caste, he's helping someone who's not Proto-Lucy during the zombie apocalypse.**

 *** That is probably the most upbeat "city destruction" music I've ever heard.**

 *** Or worse, _zombie_ werewolves!**

 *** That song sounds really threatening. I almost wonder if it could fit during any part of the Atlantis arc...**

 **3) ChernoMan: Due to the very long wait between chapters, and how long this thing is already, I'm only going to respond to what you said on the previous chapter, sorry.**

 *** It's okay, man, it happens.**

 *** I'm glad you could understand.**

 *** Yeah, because we're already about to reach three hundred thousand words, and we're not done with season 1 yet. And the only other long fics I can think of, like Syngenesophobia and Requiem for a Loud, are around the same length or reaching 300000 words.**

 *** Especially when in the zombie apocalypse: There ain't no time to waste, yo!**

 *** I never even once thought about that saying when I wrote that line. What a coincidence. XD**

 *** Okay, yeah, I probably wasn't paying attention when I wrote that, but it's still something that's worth pointing out, right?**

 *** Kinda like a certain blonde older sister with the power of lighting...**

 *** The story arc started on chapter 32, so with this chapter, I'd say we're around the fourth chapter.**

 *** Trust me, as this is the culmination of the first half of the season, there's no way I can avoid there being way too much stuff at once on the screen.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 36: Duality Between the Sun and the Moon! Where is the Gashadokuro Going to Spawn?!**

* * *

Back where we left off... sorta, the Loud parents were jumping from roof to roof as they searched for their children, with only Lynn Sr. noticing the dome.

"So, Luna's counterpart's dome has been put into place," the man remarked, getting his wife's attention. "Looks like we won't be able to get out of here now."

"Of course we won't, we need to help with the zombie invasion," Rita answered before showing her Loud slayer weapon. "And besides, we still need to deliver these weapons to the kids: The sooner, the better!"

Lynn Sr. lowered his head and thought about it... which caused him to slip on the next roof he jumped too, prompting Rita to grab him and gently put him down.

"S-Sorry, honey, I got distracted for a moment there..." Lynn Sr. said as he caught his breath. "Now, remind me, which of the kids are we giving these weapons to?"

"Well, Luna and Lucy, obviously," Rita answered with a shrug. "Luna's counterpart is the one who summoned this dome, and Lucy's counterpart is the reason for the apocalypse, after all."

The man scratched his chin and hummed. "Splitting off would be a good idea, then, since it's unlikely they'll be in the same place. However, splitting off is _also_ a bad idea, since the zombies are down on the streets..."

"Doesn't matter, we can just slash or pierce them out of the way," Rita snapped her fingers with a confident tone. "So, how about this: I'll go look for Luna, while you go look for Lucy."

Lynn Sr. hummed. "That sounds like a good idea, but-"

Rita gave her husband a thumbs up and promptly began looking for Luna, leaving the man to look for Lucy. Seeing he had no other choice, the guy mused:

"I hope the girls are doing well..."

 ** _Speaking of the girls..._**

Among the teams the group had split off from, Luna and Luan were one of those teams, and they remained on top of a roof, looking at a group of zombies marching to some location.

"Remind me why aren't we doing anything again, Luan?" Lucy asked, sounding slightly concerned.

"It's fairly simple, Lucy; You see, the zombies are marching to some place in order to do... whatever they were brought back to do, right?" Luan argued, earning a nod from Lucy as they focused on the marching zombies. "Well, we just got to watch where they're going, and once we can see where they're heading, that's when we stop them and get to work on stopping the evil plot from-"

Lucy narrowed her eyes and stated, "My counterpart."

Luan blinked once and turned to Lucy. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Luan, you don't have to act like the Proto-Sister behind this is a mystery, it's so obvious that it's my counterpart," Lucy explained, frowning as she added, "I mean, zombies, darkness, the night thing might be Luna's counterpart's doing, but everything else sounds like it's my counterpart's fault."

"Oh, okay, I see what you mean," Luan said, only to notice the marching zombies were leaving their view. "Oh look, they're moving out of sight!"

The sisters jumped to the next couple of rooftops and stopped to watch the continued march as Luan continued:

"Still, we don't know if she's working alone or not: There's a chance she and Luna's counterpart could be working together, hence the dome. Or it could just be a coincidence, and we're dealing with more than one Proto-Sister right now."

Luan paused, and her face slightly turned blue. "And now that I think about it, that would be even worse than if we were dealing with just one."

The comedian, however, quickly shook off the shock and went back to watching the marching zombies, while Lucy looked at Luan with a worried look. Luan ignored this fact, at least until Lucy asked:

"Luan, you haven't made many jokes, or laughed that much lately."

"Yeah, I guess I haven't," Luan answered, rolling her eyes. "Is that something that bothers you?"

"It just doesn't feel like you," Lucy answered, twiddling her fingers as she turned back to the march, and continued to talk, "The Luan I remember is someone who could make a joke out of anything, and bring smiles to everybody, whenever she wasn't making them groan. Now, you rarely make jokes, you rarely laugh, and you seem... I don't know, sadder-"

"Well, you're one to talk, you know?" Luan answered, avoiding eye contact with the goth as she continued, "The Lucy I know is calm, stoic, rarely shows emotions, and can be quite creepy. But now, you show emotions like fear and worry, you sound more emotional as well, and..."

Luan paused, and lowered her head, prompting Lucy to ask, "And?"

"And you're not even alive anymore, in the normal sense anyway," Luan sighed, rubbing her forehead. "You're in some sort of state between life and death, and you could've still been alive if I had done something about the hydra."

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "You're upset because you think I died because you didn't do something about a giant beast that took an entire team to bring down?"

"I'm upset because everything that's happening... is just so overwhelming to me!" Luan answered, raising her arms. "I mean, living puppets? Sentient trash? Those are weird, but what we're dealing with the zombie apocalypse now!"

Luan took a deep breath and leaned back, looking at the fake night sky as she finished:

"Plus, one of my sisters died, and even if you came back, there's no way of knowing if the same will be true for everybody else."

Lucy took a deep breath and leaned back, "I... guess I can see where you're coming from. And to be honest, it would be fairly annoying if you were cracking puns while we were in the middle of something important."

"Yeah, especially considering my power's based on puns!" Luan said, getting a little smile. "I mean, can you imagine my powers going haywire because I spat out a pun every 5 seconds? Even I would find that obnoxious!"

The sisters laughed for a little bit, with Luan's laughter dying down faster than Lucy's did. She then took a deep breath and turned to the goth, whose laughter stopped as soon as she noticed this sight. "What?"

"Lucy, I'm sorry I didn't do anything to prevent your death," Luan said, rubbing the goth's hair. "But, I assure you, I'll make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Thanks, Luan, I appreciate it," Lucy replied with a smile. "Although, I'm still surprised that you went with me, rather than Luna."

"I'm surprised too; I thought you were going to go with Lynn," Luan said as she and Lucy got back up. "But I'm pretty sure Lori's going to keep Luna safe no matter what."

 ** _Speaking of Luna..._**

The rockstar and Lori, both riding on a cloud, flew towards the artificial moon that was the source of the dome. The closer they got, the better the look they got of the moon, which looked like it was made entirely out of energy.

"So, do you think if we destroy this thing, it'll dispel the dome surrounding the city?" Luna asked, squinting her eyes to see a bit closer at the moon. "I don't see a core or anything we can attack-"

"Destroying it isn't the only way to dispel it, you know?" Lori pointed out, getting Luna's attention. "You're the controller of the moon, after all. And this is a moon, one way or another."

Lori threw a suggestive eyebrow raise at Luna. "Why don't you control it?"

Almost as if on cue, thunder was heard as Proto-Luna made her presence known: She parted the skies in a moon shape, then flew down to the opposite side from the rocker and oldest sister.

"Ugh, don't tell me you can just leave this dome whenever you want!" Luna complained. "That's totally unfair, dude!"

"Well, look who it is, my sweet little Dumah," Proto-Luna said with a mockingly cheerful tone. "How's the angel of silence doing in this wonderful day?"

Proto-Luna smirked. "Or should I say, night?"

"Don't think you can fool me, Proto-Me!" Luna proclaimed while giving her counterpart the pointer finger. "Bun-Bun already told us what this "Eternal Night Dome" thing is about! And I bet that once Lori and I deal with you, everything will turn back to normal!"

Lori raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what?"

Proto-Luna closed her eyes and shook her head. "So the little rabbit toy of Lincoln's exists in this reality? As if Lincoln himself wasn't enough of a pain."

Luna narrowed her eyes. "Don't compare my brother to the Lincoln that threw everything off the rails! He's completely different!"

Proto-Luna suddenly shouted:

"I already know that!"

The shout sent shockwaves across the area as both Lori and Luna processed what the prototype just said. The former because of what it implied, and the latter because she knew what this meant.

"Do you really think I'm so stupid, as to believe that the Lincoln you live with, is the same Lincoln that overthrew his own sisters?" Proto-Luna continued with a furious tone. "The same Lincoln whose only purpose in life is to breed? The same Lincoln who believed he was so much better, that he could defy his own purpose?! The same Lincoln, who ruined the universe, and ruined the perfect world made by the maker, in order to try defy his fate!?"

And finally, Proto-Luna let out another titanic shout:

"The same Lincoln that committed genocide against his own children!?"

This time, Lori and Luna had to put some effort in order to not be blown away. After a couple seconds, the intense gale settled down and Proto-Luna calmed down as she lowered her head and took several deep breaths, her hair shadowing her eyes.

"So, wait a minute," Luna said, suddenly realizing something. "Then, if you know our Lincoln's not the same as your Lincoln, why do you and the rest of the progenitors insist on calling him as such?"

The prototype rocker stopped breathing, and remained silent for a couple seconds, until she quietly answered:

"Because he's all that remains of him..."

"He's all that remains of him?" Luna repeated, raising an eyebrow as Lori prepared the cloud to move. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Exasperated at Luna's density, or perceived density anyway, Proto-Luna snapped and charged purple spheres:

"Our Lincoln died along with the original reality!"

 ** _Meanwhile, with Lynn..._**

The burnt jock, alongside Clyde, walked around the streets, throwing fireballs at the zombies that didn't block or catch them, and dodging the ones that did block or catch them, which were taken care of by Clyde and his trusty laser beams.

And as Clyde levitated and threw the Lynn caste zombies away, Lynn jumped high, raised her arms, and charged a giant fireball until it was the size of a small sun. She then whistled, getting Clyde's attention moments before she threw the miniature sun at the group of zombies.

Luckily, the boy jumped away before the miniature sun engulfed the zombies, with the ensuing explosion sending him flying and crashing into a wall. Fortunately, he didn't seem particularly injured as he slid down.

"Thanks coming with me, Clyde," Lynn said as she landed next to Clyde and helped him up. "I can't risk going here alone, knowing that there are zombies that can block and return my attacks."

"And that you can get hurt by your own attacks too, right?" Clyde inquired, pointing at the side of Lynn's face that was burnt. "Why didn't you get somebody to heal you before we split up? Is Leni really the only person who can heal people?"

"Sadly, she really is the only person I know who can heal," Lynn put a hand on her hip and shook her head. "And yes, I know people of her caste might be able to do it too, but I don't know anybody who could be part of her caste!"

Clyde folded his arms. "What about Lincoln?"

Lynn raised an eyebrow. "He's part of Leni's caste?"

"No! I mean, why didn't you ask him to heal you?! Or help you find somebody to heal you?!" Clyde sternly said. "If there's somebody who can help you with that burnt part of your face, then it's him!"

"Clyde, I know you have a lot of faith in Lincoln, what with being his best friend and all, but you must realize even he has his limits," Lynn replied, striking a nerve with the guy. "And besides, whatever healing he could provide probably wouldn't heal me fast enough."

The boy, seeing the girl seemed to be hesitant about accepting help, bluntly stated;

"Lynn, I'm telling you this as a friend; You have to find somebody who can heal you before you're inevitably caught up in a fight with your own counterpart. Even if the only thing that got burnt was your face, you're still hurt! What if she uses that to her advantage?"

"She won't, you know why?" Lynn bluntly retorted. "Because she's not going to appear here! Ever since we've started, we've only faced one progenitor each, and the one time another progenitor joined, it was more like an invasion or something!"

Clyde pinched the bridge of his nose. "Lynn, you can't say you've only faced one progenitor at a time, then follow it by mentioning a progenitor joining the fight with another progenitor!"

"They weren't even working together!" Lynn added in exasperation.

"Whether they work together or not is irrelevant: You, and I guess the twins, were facing two progenitors at the same time!" Clyde bluntly pointed out. "What if this is the same case, and we're dealing with two progenitors right now?"

"Then you'd be very correct."

Lynn and Clyde turned to see the source of the voice, who turned out to be none other than Proto-Lynn, who seemed particularly furious as she set foot on the scorching dust that used to be the zombies.

"And unfortunately for you, Gabriel," Proto-Lynn glared at Clyde. "What you've just done, has left me furious!

"Gabriel?" Clyde repeated, scratching his chin. "Is that supposed to be my divine name or something? I thought only the Loud family had those-"

Without warning, Clyde got on the receiving end of a kick from Proto-Lynn, sending him crashing through several walls until he hit a tree.

"Clyde!" Lynn shouted.

The jock promptly tried to kick her prototype counterpart, but the prototype dodged it, charged her fists with some fire energy, then uppercutted the jock before kicking her in the gut.

However, after a brief shock, Lynn gritted her teeth, grabbed her counterpart's leg, then gathered enough strength to throw her counterpart away, giving her a couple seconds to catch her breath.

And a little bit later, Clyde walked to Lynn's side, his right arm now changed into a charging arm cannon. And with a significant bruise on his cheek.

"Clyde!" Lynn exclaimed in surprise. "Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine, but what about you?" Clyde answered as he aimed his arm cannon at Proto-Lynn. "It looks like you took quite a harsh hit right there."

"Heh, don't worry, I've been through worse," Lynn answered while she caught her breath. "If you can keep her occupied for a while, I'll be able to recover in no time! Can I count on you to keep her busy?"

Clyde smiled and got ready to shoot his cannon at the prototype as he answered:

"Sure, leave it to me."

 ** _And then, on the city..._**

Carlota and the club member continued to fight, with the girl getting ready to strike again when the mortician pushed her away with his soul weapon, which he then covered himself in to transform.

The resulting transformation made the mortician grow significantly bigger, as big as a house at least, with demonic traits all around him: Sharp teeth, bat-like wings, and so on. He was also flying, and his soul weapon had grown exponentially as he raised it and got ready to crush Carlota with it...

"Well, what do we have here?"

The transformed club member and Carlota turned around to the source of the voice, who turned out to be none other than Leni, standing right on top of a lamppost, her hair blowing in the wind as she giggled:

"Looks like I'm going to have a bit of fun."

"That girl again..." Carlota muttered sternly.

The transformed club member flew over to Leni's spot and cackled a demonic laughter. "So, the descendant of Progenitor Leni steps into the battlefield? I thought Progenitor Lori made sure you would never interfere with the progenitors' plans!"

"Wrong: She won't let me interfere in anything that interferes with _her_ plan," Leni's smile grew wider. "And luckily for me, you're so insignificant, I can do whatever I want with you. Because you're that worthless."

Then, with a smug grin, Leni added:

"Just like your own progenitor."

The enraged club member swung his soul weapon, slashing the lamppost in half and seemingly getting rid of Leni... Who came down from the sky and landed on a lamppost nearby, signified by her shouting "Hello!" at the member. They then swung the weapon again, this time slashing the lamppost into pieces.

Leni just came down from the sky and landed on yet another lamppost, no worse for wear. And this continued for a while as the member continued to swing and destroy the lampposts, and Leni continued to return without injury.

And eventually, Leni got on top of the member rather than a lamppost, with the transformed club member looking everywhere for the teenager as she telepathically told Carlota:

" _Alright, Carlota, now's your turn. Show this brat a superior transformation!_ "

The teenager didn't take long to realize what Leni was talking about: The form she took while she was under Proto-Lola's servitude. However, with the death of that progenitor, the girl had no idea if she could even access that form anymore.

So, not wanting to risk it, Carlota simply powered up until she was surrounded by a pink aura, and then looked sternly at the transformed mortician, before she shot a pink laser from her eyes.

The mortician, noticing this, morphed its soul weapon into a shield, but Leni simply jumped back into one of the slashed posts and used it as a blunt weapon, hitting the member with it and stunning him long enough to lower his guard, and promptly be hit by the pink laser.

Shortly after that, the mortician was completely encased in ice, and Leni took the chance to jump high and kick him hard enough to send him plummeting to the ground, shattering him into a million pieces.

And shocking Carlota in the process, too.

"Leni, what the hell!?" Carlota exclaimed as Leni landed next to her. "Why did you do that to him!?"

"He tried to kill you, and made it clear he was, like, going to do it if I didn't stop him, and yet you're shocked that I shattered him to pieces?" Leni folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. "Besides, he's one of Proto-Lucy's playthings, he's not going to die from a little something like being killed."

As if Leni's surprising disregard for the mortician's well-being wasn't enough, Carlota got a shock when Leni was proven right soon after, as the shattered club member morphed into a black cloud, escaped the shards, and merged back into its mortal form, which was badly bruised.

"Sister Lupa was right, you really are a psycho!" the member said as he slowly backed away. "I'm not standing here to deal with a psychopath like you!"

The member ripped off his soul, exhibitting clear weapon as he did, and morphed it into a broom before he got on top of it and flew away in terror. And with him gone, Leni promptly threw a glare at Carlota and snapped:

"Why didn't you transform?!"

"Listen, I know that the Champion transformation is more powerful than whatever the other followers of the progenitors have, but the thing is, they are tied to the progenitors themselves!" Carlota responded sternly. "And in case you haven't noticed, Progenitor Lola is gone! Dead! Vanquished! Out of the picture!"

Leni pinched the bridge of her nose. "Just how stupid are you?"

Carlota raised an eyebrow and tilted her head, prompting Leni to explain:

"As a champion, your power is directly tied to Lola's own power; As long as she lives, you're her designated champion, and as long as that's true, you can access the Champion form without issue!"

Carlota's eyes widened as she realized what this meant, and she remained silent as she thought about it, and eventually gave her answer:

"Even so, I've never even met this Lola you're talking about. The only "Lola" I ever knew was Mother Lola, or Gremory, or whatever her real name was. Who knows what could happen if I tried to access that form again?"

Leni narrowed her eyes. "Then meet her."

Carlota flinched at the sudden response, and Leni bluntly added:

"Find another champion who's lost their master, and convince them to, like, meet the Neo versions of those dead masters or something."

The teenager thought about that option, and nodded in agreement. "Yes... I will do that..."

"Although, you can't really go right now," Leni rolled her eyes. "Royal Woods is currently trapped under the Eternal Night Dome, "Luna"'s special technique. I suggest you help control the zombie apocalypse over here-"

And then the fashionista realized something:

"Hey, wait a minute, how could you get here from Royal Woods if that place is trapped under a dome?" Carlota asked out loud, getting Leni's attention. "I know there are the tunnels, but only a fellow Santiago knows how to find them!"

"One of my teammates is a hybrid between my caste and Lori's caste, who has the power to open portals to any other location, or even another dimension, and you think the only way I could get out is through the tunnels your family uses?" Leni shook her head in disappointment. "Sometimes you have to, like, think outside the box, Carlota."

The teenager groaned. "Don't you have something else to do?"

"I do, in fact; I have to go take care of the other mortician club members," Leni crouched down and prepared for take-off as she added, "Goodbye Carlota, I hope you take what I said into consideration."

With her mind spoken, Leni jumped away, with Carlota watching her leave as she groaned:

"She's still a pain, even after all these years..."

 ** _Back with Lori and Luna..._**

Lori and Luna flew around the cloud as they dodged Proto-Luna's fierce barrage of purple energy blasts.

"Whoa, dude, calm down!" Luna exclaimed as she generated her energy axe and swung the blasts away with it. "I know you're upset because of the fact we kinda made you reveal your Lincoln's dead, somehow, but don't take it out on us!"

"Shut up, you Proof of Genocide!" Proto-Luna snapped as her eyes glew purple. "I demand you shut up before I silence you myself!"

"Luna, there's literally no point in talking to her!" Lori stated as she continued dodging the prototype's attacks. "Just focus on gaining power over the artificial moon!"

Luna glanced at the moon in question. "But how-"

"Just put your hands in front of there and grasp it!"

Not having many options left, not to mention having no time to think about what she was doing, Luna obliged and aimed her arms in front of the moon sphere, trying to "grasp" the thing while Proto-Luna continued her barrage of blasts.

Luckily, after concentrating for a bit, Luna felt something and reacted by clenching her fist, causing the sphere to shift position slightly.

"Huh, that was easier than I thought," Luna remarked, smiling in relief.

But Proto-Luna was having none of that. "You think so!?"

Suddenly, the artificial moon stopped and smacked the cloud, separating Luna and Lori, sending them flying off in opposite directions. Luna flew off into a building and crashed on the wall, while Lori regained her composure, spun around, and landed on the wall before she flew towards Proto-Luna, who aimed the artificial moon at her.

"Don't even think about it, Harut!" Proto-Luna hissed as she prepared to launch the artificial moon. "You may have the powers of the older descendants as Leni's plaything! But even you can't control the moon!"

Lori stopped flying and glanced at Luna, who was recovering from the crash as Proto-Luna noticed this sight... and gained a little smile.

"You know what, Harut? You may not be able to control the moon..." Proto-Luna aimed the moon at Luna. "But as my descendant, Dumah should be able to do it!"

Lori gasped as Proto-Luna promptly threw the celestial body at Luna, who flinched and aimed her arms forward, trying to gain control of the moon one more time. And as Luna's panic started to rise and the moon didn't seem to slow down, the rockstar shed tears as she tried to grasp harder...

And the moon started to slow down, before stopping altogether.

Proto-Luna stood there in disbelief, while Lori raised her arm and cheered up.

"Way to go, Luna!" the older sister exclaimed, getting on Proto-Luna's nerves. "Now literally throw that thing back to Proto-Luna's face!"

Angered at the statement, Proto-Luna grabbed control of the artificial moon and threw it at Lori, only for Luna to regain control of the moon and stop moments before it hit Lori, allowing the girl to fly away and leave the Lunas to deal with each other.

"And here I thought your existence was infuriating enough as is!" Proto-Luna tried to regain control of the moon with one of her arms. "How can you control a moon-like object like that!? Did you even practice for that before this moment!?"

Luna tightened her grip. "I don't know, and you know what?! As long as it helps me defeat you, I don't care!"

Proto-Luna gritted her teeth and, seeing her single arm approach wasn't getting results, she lifted her free arm, and the moon slightly budged to her favor, bringing a smile to her face, and a frown to Luna.

However, the rockstar soon got an idea, and crouched down as she prepared to jump, her arms still extended towards the artificial moon. Once she charged enough, she jumped from the building, created a hammer out of the same energy she made her axe, and then smacked the artificial moon with it, somehow hitting it hard enough to send it flying straight to Proto-Luna, who barely managed to notice before she artificial moon struck her and sent her crashing with the dome itself.

With that done, Luna fell from her spot until she landed on a cloud, which was summoned by a flying Lori, who looked at the dome's slight cracks as she flew towads Luna.

"I leave for one second, and when I come back, you're jumping off buildings and launching moons into your counterpart," Lori remarked with an amused tone. "I can't tell whether to compliment your creativity, or scold you for your recklessness."

"Aw geez, Lori, cut me some slack! I was dealing with my counterpart alone!" Luna answered as she scratched the back of her head. "And hey, since when can you fly?"

"That's not important right now," Lori answered with a dismissive wave of her hand. "What's important is that you recover as fast as you can. Because, and I literally hate to say this-"

Suddenly, the artificial moon budged, and Lori finished:

"That won't be enough to kill her."

Cracks appeared on the artificial moon before it snapped in two, not only revealing a dark purple core inside, but also revealing that, besides some cracks around her face and body, Proto-Luna wasn't all that hurt.

"Why you little...!"

Proto-Luna raised her arms and generated two miniature moons, being barely a third of the artificial moon's size.

"Now you've done it!"

Proto-Luna threw the miniature moons at Luna and Lori, who managed to crack them to pieces with a couple attacks each... only for Proto-Luna to summon a greater amount of miniature moons as she snapped:

"Now you've pissed me off!"

 ** _Meanwhile, with Ronnie Anne..._**

The girl flew around the streets on a cloud, with an unfortunate passenger right next to her: Chandler. They both worked together to shock any zombies they saw on the streets, and while they did a decent job at it, Chandler could easily notice that Ronnie Anne was upset about the situation.

"I don't have a problem with being stuck dealing with the zombies with you," Ronnie Anne stated sternly, not even bothering to look at the boy. "I definitely don't mind sharing the same cloud with you, even though we could cover more ground using separate clouds."

Chandler silently shrugged and went back to shocking the zombies. And then Ronnie Anne added:

"But seriously, now that I mention it, we could cover more ground if we went on separate clouds, don't you think? I mean you could go to this section, and I could go to another section, and we shock any zombies that don't resist the lighting. Doesn't that sound like a good idea?"

Getting an idea as well, Chandler overloaded the cloud with electricity, and jumped off with Ronnie Anne moments before it collided with some zombies, resulting in an electric explosion upon contact.

"Yeah, take that you resurrected dead meat!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed, clenching her fist and raising it. "But hey, I only suggested to split up, Chandler, you didn't have to do that."

"Does it matter? We can just call for new clouds to use as rides," the redhead answered, avoiding eye contact with Ronnie Anne. "Especially because the farther away we're from each other, the better."

Ronnie Anne looked surprised for a moment, then returned to her "tsundere" mode and said, "Y-Yeah! You finally understand, don't you!"

"Oh, I definitely understand," Chandler glanced at the tomboy. "But do _you_?"

Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow, and the boy asked:

"We're not on good terms, but do you know why? You hate me, but do you really know why?"

"What kind of dumb questions are those?!" Ronnie Anne growled, putting her hands on her hips. "Of course I know why we're not on good terms and why I hate you! It's because of you that I became a bully!"

Chandler raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

"Yeah! You taught me everything there is to know about how to be a bully! How to intimidate, how to trash talk, I know all of that stuff because of you!" the girl hissed. "And now, nobody will ever let me forget about the fact I used to be a bully, and the only one I have to blame, is you!"

Chandler folded his arms and shook his head. "There's a difference between "the only one I _have_ to blame" and "the only one I _want_ to blame," Ronalda."

"Don't call me by my real name!" Ronnie Anne snapped. "And what the heck do you mean by that!?"

Before the boy could explain, the duo heard an explosion nearby, and saw Lynn and Clyde jumping out of the explosion.

"Jock-O?!"

"Clyde?!"

The duo separated as Proto-Lynn came out of the explosion and tried to pummel them both, but instead she was sandwiched in between Clyde's punch and Lynn's kick, both of which she blocked.

However, Clyde smirked and turned his fist into an arm cannon, allowing him to shoot an energy blast straight to Proto-Lynn's face, disorienting her long enough to allow Lynn to send her flying with a kick.

Lynn quickly jumped straight for her counterpart and threw a punch, but the prototype blocked it as she evaporated the smoke cloud around her. And when Lynn threw another punch, she catched it, and then smirked with sadistic delight as she surrounded her arms in a fiery energy and squeezed Lynn's fists, the jock screaming in pain as Proto-Lynn boasted:

"You once said you were powered by the fires of a sore loser, but can you burn brighter than the fire of an immortal winner?!"

Before Lynn could answer, a lighting bolt struck Proto-Lynn and stunned her, allowing Lynn to kick her away and catch her breath. She also managed to take a look at her fists, which were so badly burnt, she almost could see some bone among the charred skin.

And as she caught her breath, Lynn took the chance to turn around and see the one who shot the lighting bolt, who was none other than Chandler.

"Chandler?!" Clyde exclaimed as the redhead put him down. "What are you doing here?"

"I noticed you were in a bit of trouble, so I decided to lend you a helping hand," the boy answered with a smile. "And I didn't come alone, either."

Moments later, Ronnie Anne leaped into the battlefield and struck Proto-Lynn with her lighting sword, though it didn't make much more than drive the prototype away a couple feet... allowing Lynn to throw a fiery kick at her, sending her crashing into some rubble.

"Nice kick there, Jock-O!" Ronnie Anne remarked, cracking her knuckles. "Now, let me and the guys take care of this!"

Lynn's eyes widened. "W-Wait-!"

Ronnie Anne and Chandler jumped straight to continue their fight with Proto-Lynn, while Clyde walked to her side, put a hand on her shoulder, and said:

"You know, I think I know what you want to do: You want us to stay at the sidelines and watch you fight your counterpart on your own, right? You want to be the "lone wolf" kind of character and deal with this alone?"

"T-That's not..." Lynn stuttered, lowered her head and took a deep breath. "What even gave you that idea?"

"According to Carol, Lana went through the same phase when Proto-Lana attacked," Clyde answered with a sympathetic smile. "And while it took fusing with Lola for her to ditch the attitude, I trust that you know better than them."

"That's not... that's not it, Clyde," Lynn showed her hands to the boy. "You already saw my face... now look at my arms... my counterpart is too strong; Even with all of you together, she could still burn us all to a crisp!"

"But she's not doing that right now, is she?" Clyde argued as he saved his hands on his pockets. "The progenitors think they don't need to do much in order to win: They think that the barest of effort will be enough to defeat you. And that's something we should try to take advantage of."

Lynn glanced at the guy, who smiled and nodded, then turned back to see Ronnie Anne and Chandler's continued barrage against the prototype. Even so, Lynn frowned and lowered her head.

"Even still..."

With all her strength, Lynn clenched her burnt fists.

"There has to be someone else... who needs your help..."

 ** _Speaking of that..._**

Proto-Luan smirked as her torture on the Sadie Hawkins' dates continued, with all of them shivering and trying to remain conscious through the event. She wasn't even paying attention to the torture itself, she simply heard the dates' groans and screams of pain while she looked at a row of cards, mostly a bunch of jokers.

"My oh my, it seems that you all have some inner demons you haven't deal with," Proto-Luan spoke as she checked the cards. "Then again, I guess that's to be expected. After all..."

Proto-Luan looked at Polly Pain, who was staring at her defiantly. "Loyalties can be broken..."

Then to Tabby, who took several deep breaths as she tried to stay sane. "Families can be separated..."

Then to Haiku, who kept crying for it to stop. "Love can be forgotten..."

And finally, Giggles, who seemed to be. "And friendships, can be fake..."

She turned back to the cards and smirked. "Only question is... how long can you last, until you can't take it anymore?"

And with that, Proto-Luan snickered as the Sadie Hawkins dates' screams echoed across the plane, with the loudest being Haiku's scream.

It was so loud, in fact, that Lucy managed to hear it from miles away.

"Luan, I-I think I heard something," the goth said as she hugged herself and shivered. "It was... like a scream of agony... a cry for help..."

"Yeah, I heard something like that too," Luan sighed. "And trust me, I wish we could do something about it, but we need to focus on the march. I think we're almost there, after all."

The goth nodded, and the pair jumped from rooftop to rooftop one more time, until they finally got view of the marching zombies' destination: The city square, where the skeletons piled themselves up in a giant mix-and-match of bones, with Proto-Lucy overlooking the process.

Luan formed a pair of circles on her eyes using her hands, and to her surprise, it functioned as a pair of binoculars. "Oh wow, I didn't think this would work!"

Luan moved one of her hand-circles to Lucy's normal eye, and this allowed the girls to have a much closer look at the gashadokuro's creation... and Proto-Lucy as well, who turned around and aimed her palm at the duo as she said, with a sadistic grin:

"There you are!"

Proto-Lucy shot an energy blast at the building, destroying it and causing the girls to fall on the ground. And as they stood up, Proto-Lucy flew to their side and said:

"I've been waiting for you."

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Hello everybody, Carol here!"

The scene showed Carol coming out of a portal, and landing on the entrance to the building before, which was the same one she arrived to during the introduction arc.

"I'm heading to the church of Lincolnism right now."

Carol was stopped by two guards, who turned out to be Boy and Girl Jordan. However, the next scene afterwards showed her inside the church.

"I get the feeling this place is going to help Proto-Lucy with her zombie apocalypse."

Carol walked up to Mabel, who was leaning against a wall, and clutching her chest as she took heavy breaths.

"And that I'm going to witness some really messed up stuff."

The teenager ran down until she landed at a sanctuary of sorts, where some Lincolnists were forcing some children into heading to a particular spot...

"But I can't back down right now."

Carol called out to the cloaked figure guiding them, who took off their cloak to reveal themselves as Renee. And next thing they knew, Paige arrived, sporting her hammer behind her head as she said something.

"Even if it's minor, I have to do whatever I can to help stop the apocalypse!"

Next, some scenes were shown in quick succession: Luan and Lucy getting up and confronting Proto-Lucy, followed by Ronnie Anne and Chandler shooting lighting bolts at Proto-Lynn, then a moon crashing on the ground before cutting to show Luna and Lori fighting Proto-Luna, until finally it showed Mr. Universe resting when Becky and Catherine ran to his side.

"Everybody's trying to stop it, and so must I!"

Luna and Rita crashed into each other, and Luna saw the red weapon she held.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Luna grabbed the sword, and watched it glow a purple light as it transformed, before the scene changed to show Lisa and Lily heading to the battlefield while reading the Ars Loudia.

" _The Ultimate Sacrifice Brought by Faith! Proto-Luan's House of Horrors' Made Visible! Wait, Has Luan Unlocked Her Angel Form?!_ "

Then the scene showed one of the moons heading straight for Maggie, Sam, and the brothers, as the gothic teenager reached for her back.

"Don't miss it!"

The final scene showed Luan and Proto-Lucy talking for a moment, before the prankster narrowed her eyes and began transforming...


	37. Dramedic Uprising

**Posting this now 'cause I may not get the chance tomorrow.**

 **Well, would you look at that, a chapter that's slightly longer than average! I did warn you there would be some of these, and it's not going to be just this one that's gonna be extra long.**

 **Also, I once again want to apologize for the long waits between arcs: It takes a lot of work to make them, I'll make that lear, but I feel like the quality that I've been writting these hasn't been up to par with either how it started, or how it should be considering my years of writing fanfiction.**

 **Simply put, we might be going through Seasonal Rot before the season is even over.**

 **Or I'm just making up that illusion and going nuts, either one is possible. XD**

 **Anyway, to the reviews:**

 **1) Nobody245: Like mothers, like daughters, I guess. And in the worst way possible.**

 **2) TheCartoonist294:**

 *** Do you mean as in how many chapters are there _now_ , or how many chapters will there be? Because right now, we're at thirty seven, and I'm thinking we may reach past a hundred when this story finally gets completed.**

 *** It's in order to give it more of an Anime-like feel to it, since Anime is a big inspiration for this story.**

 **3) Observant Guest: Before we start, I'd like to ask, maybe again, how's your SVTFOE watch going? At what season are you? I'm not asking because of WoD, either, I'm just curious.**

 *** Well, Polly Pain, Tabby, and Giggles mainly. I like to think Haiku is not so easy to get through.**

 *** Hmm, that is weird actually: We get a minor character and their popularity blows up, but then we get an actual new member of Lincoln's friends, and nobody pays attention to her?**

 *** Yeah, imagine his reaction XD**

 *** Oh, okay.**

 *** I actually haven't seen the episode, so maybe it was a coincidence?**

 **" Pain's theme, on a character that's been a pain, and has received a lot of pain.**

 *** Carol is OP confirmed.**

 *** Well, that only adds to the things they do share in common, probably to their mutual dislike.**

 *** Yep, you'll get to see her soon. :)**

 **4) ChernoMan: Again, only gonna focus on what you said about the chapter.**

 *** Now you get two headaches for the prize of one!**

 *** A small sun is nothing compared to the Lynns' true power.**

 *** Yeah, really.**

 *** I see.**

 *** There's no definition given to the artificial moon, just that its artificial. Take that however you want.**

 *** Encountering a progenitor is generally anything but nice.**

 *** Well, time to you to judge however I kept up the promising pace.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 37: The Ultimate Sacrifice Brought by Faith! Proto-Luan's House of Horrors' Made Visible! Wait, Has Luan Unlocked Her Angel Form?!**

* * *

A portal opened at the plains beyond Royal Woods, and Carol came out of the portal, and into the grand entrance to the church from before.

"Alright, time to see if the lincolnists are involved in this madness," Carol said to herself as she walked towards the door. "If they are... then I hope I don't have to get my hands dirty."

"Halt!"

Carol was stopped on her tracks by the gate guardians, who turned out to be none other than both Boy and Girl Jordan, the former sporting purple eyes, while the latter had one purple eye and one green eye.

"So, you guys decided to show up today, huh?" Carol put her hands on her hips. "What's your excuse for being absent over two weeks ago?"

The kids exchanged looks, and Guy Jordan promptly snapped, "T-That's none of your business!"

"We were tasked to not let anybody enter the Church while the progenitors were doing something at the city," Girl Jordan explained. "So, sorry, Carol, but that includes you. We can't let you in."

Goraning in exasperation, Carol promptly opened a portal and went through it, with her coming out right inside the church as the Jordans blinked in confusion.

"Oh right," Girl Jordan scratched the back of her head. "I forgot she can create portals at will."

So, once inside the church, Carol ran around the hallways as she looked for any signs of living people. But sadly, she found next to nothing: The hallways were completely empty, almost as if the place had been evacuated before she arrived.

In fact, the only thing she found was a disturbed Mabel, leaning against a wall and clutching her chest as she took heavy breaths.

"Mabel!" Carol exclaimed as she ran to the disturbed girl. "What happened? Why do you look like that?!"

"T-The Lincolnists... t-they..." Mabel weakly said, avoiding eye contact with the girl. "They're doing... something awful..."

"Mabel, tell me what's going on!" Carol asked the disturbed blonde girl. "Why is there barely anybody present here?!"

"Everybody's gathered at the sanctuary of the damned," Mabel answered as she tightened her clutch on her chest. "They're planning to help Progenitor Lucy with the gashadokuro by creating even more zombies."

"But, how would they..." Carol soon got a horrifying idea. "Wait, don't tell me..."

"Paige went there to stop them," Mabel lowered her head. "But I don't know how many of the damned will be saved..."

Carol ran through a door and went deeper and deeper down, until she found herself at the mentioned sanctuary of the damned: A massive set of walls with both big and small holes, most of which were completely empty.

And once she looked deeper, she found out why: The inhabitants of the holes, the so called "damned," were being forced to walk towards the center of the sanctuary, where some lincolnists killed some of the damned and teleported them using some spades-shaped artifact, all while being watched by a cloaked figure.

"Don't show mercy to any of these damned children, fellow brothers and sisters!" the cloaked figure proclaimed, raising their hands as they exclaimed, "Their very existence has been cursed, and dying for nothing would be a disgrace for Mother Lucy! Kill them, so their corpses may fuel the rise of the gashadokuro, who'll create a staircase to the heavens!"

"Renee!" Carol snapped, taking a couple steps forward.

The cloaked lincolnist turned around and took off her cloak, revealing herself to be Renee, one of Lincoln's former dates. She sported purple eyes and a black, foggy aura around her being.

"What do you think you're doing, Renee?!" Carol asked as she walked closer to the girl. "Did you even get Paige's permission to do this!?"

"I never agreed to this savagery."

Carol and Renee looked around, and next thing they knew, a green flash of light passed by the lincolnists and knocked them out, while freeing the cursed people, and the light revealed it soon after.

It was Paige, who put her hammer behind her head as she stated:

"But then again, like the progenitors, you'd just do whatever you want regardless of what I said, right?"

"So, the rebellious lover has arrived," Renee pinched the bridge of her nose. "Where's the true descendant when you need her?"

"If you're talking about Stella, she's a bit busy taking care of something in Royal Woods," Paige stated as she walked to Carol's side. "And if you're talking about Ronnie Anne, well, jokes on you: She'd be as disgusted as I am!"

Renee gritted her teeth and shot a glare at Paige as the Sister-Lover added:

"Now, what the hell do you think you're doing, Renee?! We were explicitly told to keep the cursed lovechildren safe and sound here!"

"Wait, the "sanctuary of the damned" houses the lovechildren?!" Carol exclaimed, taking a step back. "I thought it was the house for even more messed up beings!"

"Well, by Lincolnism standards, any lovechild born between an union without Lincoln is considered "damned" and "messed up" by default," Paige moved her hammer to point at the lovechildren around. "And not a single one of these children you see here has Lincoln as a parent."

"To be distant to the lord and savior is as much of a curse as to refuse to acknowledge his divinity in his presence," Renee raised her arms. "These children were cursed from the very moment they were born! To kill them now so they fuel the gashadokuro is the kindest mercy that could be given to them!"

Renee lowered her arms and clasped her hands. "To let them live would make us no better than the lord and savior's enemies!"

Some more lovechildren were killed, then teleported, making Carol wince and Paige narrow her eyes in disgust.

"I'm so glad the biker girls aren't here to witness this," Paige stated, getting a confused look from Carol. "They were picked by a Lupa and a Lacy to go rescue a Lizy and a Leia that were captured by the organization."

"A Lupa and a Lacy..." Carol scratched her chin, then got an idea. "Wait, don't tell me..."

 ** _Speaking of the biker trio..._**

The toddlers sat on a bench, sandwiched in between the Lacy from before, and a Lupa, who looked like a mix between Lincoln and Lucy. Her uniform was the same as the other lovechildren, but with grey highlights.

"So, you're all girls "born" from Sweet Feet and one of his sisters?" Ronnie inquired, tilting her head. "But how's that possible if Sweet Feet seems to be your age?"

"Well, we're not his children in _this_ dimension," Lupa answered, trying her hardest to avoid eye contact with the biker trio. "Truth be told, we're actually from different dimensions."

"Wow, that's so cool!" Mindy said as she turned to Lacy. "So, how many daughters and sons does Sweet Feet have?"

"Well, for daughters, there's me, there's Lupa, Lacy, Lizy and Leia who we're going to rescue... most of his children are girls, actually," the lovejock answered. "The only boy we've ever met is Lemy-"

"Did someone say my name?"

The girls turned around and saw the mentioned boy literally levitate into the room, in a pose kinda similar to a T pose, except his arms were slightly raised. He was wearing a purple dress with a black spades symbol on it, with matching opera gloves, boots, and stockings, and a purple headband that covered his eyes.

"I'm glad I came here to check up on the passengers, then. We're about to reach our destination, so please stay calm until then," Lemy said calmly as he levitated to Lacy. "Is there anything you desire to ask me, Sister Lacy?"

"N-Not at all, Lemy!" Lacy answered, while Lupa took out her soul weapon and blocked the biker trio with them. "I was just telling the newest Lincolnists about how you're the only son of Lincoln we've met so far!"

Lemy turned to the covered trio, and his eyes glew purple-with red lines underneath-before Lupa's soul weapon was shattered, allowing the boy to see the trio as Lupa backed away and her soul returned to her body.

"So, these are the biker trio that Paige told me about?" Lemy tilted his head. "What is your relationship with my Father, Lincoln?"

"We're his loyal followers!" Ronnie answered. "Although, for a long time, we never really met or talked to him. But that changed recently."

"We joined this "Lincolnism" place about a week or so ago," Mindy added, getting the boy's attention. "Time's always been weird for us, so that's why I say a week or so ago."

"Interesting," Lemy leaned back, then turned to Cindy. "And you..."

"Me?" Cindy flinched and pointed at herself.

Lemy levitated forward to the girl and leaned closer, saying:

"I can sense a feeling of romantic affection coming within you. Would you, perhaps, have a crush on my Father?"

"W-What?!" Cindy flinched and blushed as she looked around. "D-Don't be ridiculous! I like him the same way every other lincolnist likes him!"

"Every lincolnist holds romantic feelings for the lord and savior, whether they recognize them or not is irrelevant," Lemy leaned back. "Nobody joins Lincolnism without having a certain amount of love for the lord and savior."

Cindy blushed and giggled, with Lemy turning around and levitating away as he said:

"Just be careful not to get the attention of the Sister-Lovers.."

Cindy stopped giggling, and Lemy stopped, turned around, and said, with a calm, serene smile:

"They're the lord's personal love interests. And they don't like it when somebody gets in their way."

With that said, Lemy left the room and floated straight to the driver's spot, where the one driving the vehicle taking them to the organization drove it while looking at a large map in front of them.

"How are things back there?" the driver asked.

"It's all going fine," Lemy answered as he levitated to the driver's side. "The passengers will stay calm until we reach our destination. Until then, I hope you avoid taking any unnecessary risks..."

Lemy slowly turned to the pilot seat and stated, "Sister Liberty" with a frown.

The driver in question, Liberty, looked like a female Lincoln with longer hair, and the same outfit as the other lovechildren, with orange highlights.

"I'm the best pilot lovechild there is, Lemy," Liberty answered, focusing on the screen in front of her. "You have nothing to worry about."

Lemy smiled, and flew off, allowing Liberty to catch her breath. "That guy's so creepy."

 ** _Meanwhile, back with Luan and Lucy..._**

The sisters got up and Luan held Lucy's hand as Proto-Lucy continue to look at them, her condescending smile unfaltering as Luan snapped:

"What are you trying to do, Fake Lucy?!"

Proto-Lucy chuckled. "Geez, I thought Luan's descendant would be a bit more optimistic than her."

Luan groaned in frustration, and Lucy promptly asked, "What are you trying to do, Other Me?"

"Original Lucy, if you will," Proto-Lucy answered, further aggravating Luan. "And all I'm doing is finishing the work I was doing before the old reality fell apart."

Proto-Lucy turned around and faced the pile of bodies as she explained:

"You see, even before the war that destroyed the old reality, there were several events that ended in the death of several innocent protophilim. And, feeling sorry for them, I started working on creating one of the primordial creatures. More specifically, one with the ability the pierce the very heavens, so the innocent protophilim that died could come back for a second chance at life."

Luan narrowed her eyes. "Don't trust her, Lucy. She probably had more sinister intentions than that!"

Proto-Lucy then remembered something. "By the way, Ariel..."

The prototype turned around and took out from her back... the bag containing the eyes of the eldritch Lucy.

"Harut handed me this bag, and inside it were the eyes of a Lucy, the thing I demanded from our deal."

"Uh, y-yeah, that's exactly what they are!" Lucy said as she got a confused look from Luan. "So, I've fulfilled my part of the deal, right?"

"Your part of the deal?" Luan inquired, getting the goth's attention. "Lucy, what did you do?"

Seeing she had spilled the beans a bit too fast, Lucy caved in and answered:

"Lynn and I used the summoning spells in the Ars Loudia to summon our counterparts, thinking that we could control them. However, the summoning went wrong, and if it hadn't been for Lynn's friend Margo, my counterpart would've taken my eyes right then and there!"

Luan pinched the bridge of her nose. "Lucy, I know you're a fan of the occult, but what made you think doing something like that was a good idea?!"

"We weren't thinking straight, alright?!" the goth girl argued back. "It's a large book filled with occult knowledge about the progenitors! What was I supposed to do with it?!"

"Tell us about it! Or at least, tell Lori and Leni about it, they can be trustworthy!" Luan argued in return. "You can't just play around with stuff like this, Lucy! It could cost you your life!"

Suddenly, a demented cackle echoed across the city, getting the sisters' attention. So they turned around and saw the cackler was none other than Proto-Lucy who promptly proclaimed:

"It's utterly hilarious to see the descendants fight with each other, especially over such a foolish blunder!"

Luan gritted her teeth, and she turned back to Lucy, who frowned and said:

"Luan, I'm sorry that Lynn and I did something so foolish with the book. We should've told you and the girls about it when we had the chance."

The comedian sighed and put up a little smile. "It's alright, Lucy, you couldn't have known how bad things would've gotten."

"Yeah, right, after all, it's not like she's faced us before... oh wait, yes she has!" Proto-Lucy scoffed, then narrowed her eyes and smiled with a sadistic intent. "But, oh well, if she's going to be that blind to reality, I guess the only thing left to do is to punish her."

"B-But I gave you the eyes, like promised!" Lucy said, taking a step back. "We made a deal! I gave you the eyes, and you'd leave me alone!"

Proto-Lucy glanced at the bag. "Oh, these things?"

The prototype threw the bag towards the pile of bodies, which assimilated it as it morphed to form the upper part of a skull's head. Then, the empty eye sockets gained glowing lights for eyes, and stared at the duo.

"Everything goes towards the gashadokuro's arrival," Proto-Lucy stated as she cracked her knuckles. "And besides, be honest: You deserve it for being so blindly stupid."

"Stay here, Lucy," Luan said as she stood up. "I'll deal with her."

Lucy frowned. "But, Luan-"

"Lucy, do you remember what I told you just a moment ago?" Luan turned to the goth girl and smiled. "I already failed to protect you once, and I'm not going to fail you again."

"But this is a progenitor we're talking about!" the goth exclaimed. "Do you really think you'll be able to beat her?"

Luan sighed, brushed Lucy's hair and stated with a smile:

"Lucy, I'm going to protect you, one way or another. That's what's important."

With her mind spoken, Luan walked forward and met with Proto-Lucy, who kept her arms folded as she looked at the comedian with an eyeless expression of derision.

"What kind of sick joke are you trying to play with me, Artiya'il?" the prototype scoffed. "You should know better than anybody else that you're no match for me."

"Artiya'il? Is that supposed to be my angel name?" Luan scratched her head. "I thought it would be some name that ends on "el" or something like that-"

"Answer the question." Proto-Lucy sternly stated.

"Well, aren't we a bit of a buzzkill," Luan replied. "Yes, I know I'm weaker than you. In fact, if I were to face you in my base form, you'd probably completely destroy me."

"And then I would use your corpse to fuel the rise of the gashadokuro," Proto-Lucy turned to the pila of bodies, which was still in the process of summoning the creature. "Which, to be honest, has taken much more dead bodies than I thought it'd need. Just how many bodies did I use to create the original one?"

"However," Luan smirked. "I'm not going to fight in my base form."

Lucy's eyes widened, while Proto-Lucy chuckled as Luan clenched her fists and started transforming, tiny pieces of rock levitating up as the girl was surrounded by a yellow aura.

"Hmph, there's no way you could've gained access to your angel form," Proto-Lucy stated with a confident tone. "Knowing your kind, the only thing you did all this time was take everything as if it was a joke!"

Luan paid no attention to the obvious taunting of the prototype, and instead focused on continuing her transformation as her form started to change:

From her back sprouted a flower-shaped wing, which glitched slightly as it fully formed.

The girl's ponytail was undone, allowing her hair to flow wildly in the wind as from the top, a pair of hyena-like ears sprouted out.

One of her eyes gained black sclera and a yellow pupil, with the other eye just getting the yellow pupil.

And finally, the flowers she had on her shoes and shirt started growing fines that spread across her body.

And with that, Luan stopped screaming and caught her breath, her transformation... kinda sort-of completed.

"Is that it? An incomplete angel form?" Proto-Lucy scoffed, earning a glare from the comedian. "How long did you train in order to each that pathetic form in the first place? A couple days? Maybe even a week?"

"It doesn't matter if my form is incomplete or not!" Luan proclaimed as she clenched her fists. "Even if I'm only partially an angel, I'll still find a way to beat you somehow!"

Luan lowered her palms on the ground, and they glew green as vines sprouted from the floor and headed straight for Proto-Lucy, all while Lucy looked on in awe.

Unfortunately, all the prototype did in response was grab the vines with her hands once they got close enough, causing them to wither away into dust as she stated:

"Suicidal taunting should be something reserved only for Lynn's caste!"

 ** _Meanwhile, with the fight with Proto-Lynn..._**

Proto-Lynn came out of some rubble and dusted herself, moments before she sensed something and looked around.

"I get the feeling I was insulted."

And then her attention was caught again when Ronnie Anne and Chandler charged a pair of lighting bolts at her, with Clyde standing right in the middle, charging his arm cannon.

"You still dare to fight me?!" Proto-Lynn snapped, stomping the ground. "What does it take for brats like you to understand?! My beef is with Camael and Camael alone! You're doing nothing but risking your lives for no reason!"

"Oh, don't get the wrong idea, we have a reason to risk our lives!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed, narrowing her eyes. "You and the rest of the progenitors aren't just trying to kill your descendants! You want to destroy everything, don't you?!"

"Such a ridiculous motivation," Proto-Lynn shook her head. "Why would I want to destroy everything if I can just rule it once Loudgeddon's come and gone? After all, there will be nothing left of this reality when it happens."

"In that case, there will be nothing left for you to rule over, right?" Chandler pointed, narrowing his eyes as he asked, "Then shouldn't you try to stop Loudgeddon from happening, rather than try and kill your descendant?"

"Once a dimension has been damaged enough that its damage cannot be easily repaired, Loudgeddon becomes an inevitability," Proto-Lynn answered with a somber tone. "This dimension of ours is but one example of such a tragic plane of reality. The world will be destroyed, and it's all thanks to that good-for-nothing Lincoln..."

With those words spoken, Clyde adjusted his glasses as he finished charging his arm cannon and deduced:

"Then your real target is Lincoln, isn't it!?"

Chandler and Ronnie Anne powered up the boy's cannon, and he shot a green-light blue energy beam at the prototype, who promptly ran forward and held the beam with her hands... at first, eventually the beam engulfed Proto-Lynn despite her best efforts.

This didn't stop her, though, and she simply dashed through it as she prepared to punch the trio, who jumped out of the way before the fist connected.

And with that, Proto-Lynn's aftermath was revealed: While her skin wasn't charred or injured, there was steam and smoke coming out of it, not to mention a surprisingly bright gleam. She almost looked like she came out of a car wash.

But regardless, Chandler and Ronnie Anne shot a pair of lighting bolts at her before Clyde grabbed them and used his jet shoes to fly back to Lynn's side, who slowly turned to her allies.

"Guys, I'm serious, you have to get out of here!" Lynn told the trio. "Nothing you can do is going to hurt her! You must leave before she starts getting serious!"

"You really think we're going to leave you behind, just like that, Jock-O? Especially looking at how badly hurt you are?" Ronnie Anne answered, folding her arms and shaking her heads at the thought. "Nuh uh, we're staying here no matter what!"

"And besides, if this is something about this "being between you and your counterpart," then that's not a valid excuse," Chandler added with a stern tone. "The progenitors take several teams just to pin them down: Just because you're her counterpart, and a god as well, doesn't mean you alone can win this fight-"

"I've never won anything!" Lynn suddenly snapped.

The trio went silent, and realizing what she said, Lynn took a deep breath and explained:

"Ever since the progenitors entered the picture... ever since we had to train just to survive, I've never managed to net a single victory against them! Sure, I've helped the twins, and I've managed to hold them back sometimes, but I've never actually won against them!"

Lynn looked at her own charred hands and weakly clenched them.

"I went from the sports superstar of the family, to the only one of my siblings who hasn't been able to do anything against the progenitors!"

"Lynn, don't clench your hands like that, you're only going to make them worse!" Clyde said as he ran to the girl's side and separated her hands carefully. "And besides, what are you talking about? You're not the only one who hasn't been able to do anything against the progenitors! I myself haven't really done anything against them since they attacked!"

"Then what the heck was that energy beam combination you did with Ronnie Anne and the redheaded guy?!" Lynn snapped. "Just admit it: Out of me and my sisters, I'm the only one who hasn't done anything against the progenitors!"

"I agree."

The team turned around and saw Proto-Lynn walking out of the smoke cloud, looking particularly annoyed.

"In terms of combat ability, you have done little to nothing to contribute to the fight, Camael," Proto-Lynn added. "While everybody's fighting for their lives, or at least doing something to help the fight between us, you just enter the fray and get beaten again and again."

Suddenly, the prototype jock teleported to Clyde's side. "Even this brat managed to figure out the real target, _and_ attacked, even if he knew he was outmatched."

Proto-Lynn grabbed Clyde by the neck of his sweater and lifted him. "So yes, child: The real target of all this agression is Lincoln!"

The boy aimed his arm cannon and shot a blast right in Proto-Lynn's face, prompting her to throw him off to Ronnie Anne and Chandler's side.

"I-If Lincoln's your real target, then why are you attacking _us_?" Lynn asked, getting her counterpart's attention. "I mean, I know you hate us because we're your descendants, but why bother fighting us first, and Lincoln second?"

The prototype chuckled and promptly explained:

"You see, we're family, and divine entities on top of it. The former guarantees that as soon as we tried to hurt Lincoln, you'd jump in to protect him, and the latter made sure that the gap between us wasn't as wide as with any other creature."

The proto-jock folded her arms and took a deep breath:

"Trying to strike Lincoln himself means being stopped by you and your sisters, Camael. The only real way we could ever hope to get close to him, was to get rid of you."

"But we just found out we were gods, and we don't have access to all our abilities," Lynn pointed out sternly, and regrettably. "Why didn't you strike him while you still had the chance?"

Proto-Lynn looked at the sky with a contemplative look. "Truth be told, we tried that once."

Then she closed her eyes and groaned. "And he nearly wiped us out."

Lynn and Chandler's eyes widened in shock, while Clyde and Ronnie Anne exchanged proud looks and smiles, almost as if they were saying "that's our Lincoln!" to each other.

"Truth be told, it seems that his power is connected both to the love interests under his wing, and you and your sisters as well, Camael. Like a living battery, if you will. The more batteries you take out, the less power something has."

"No, the instant you take out _one_ battery, whatever thing had them doesn't work at all," Ronnie Anne pointed out, with the boys nodding in agreement. "I should know, all control remotes seem to work like that."

"Well, whatever, you understand the point of the analogy, right?" Proto-Lynn folded her arms. "The only hope we have of defeating Lincoln, is by getting rid of the sisters that both protect and empower him."

Proto-Lynn looked strictly at Lynn's eyes and, with a malevolent tone, she proclaimed:

"Once he's completely alone, he'll be defenseless. And once he's defenseless, that's when we'll strike and destroy the body of the one that caused us so much trouble before!"

Now officially angry, Lynn kicked her counterpart upwards, just in time for a large moon-like object to crash on her, and then crash-land on the ground, with the team jumping away before the collision.

Shortly after, Proto-Lynn cracked the object in one punch and caught her breath. "Where the hell did that even come from!?"

"Over there!"

The team jumped away from another incoming moon projectile, which Proto-Lynn crushed to pieces as she realized something:

"These things... they're Luna's artificial moons..."

And then she looked up, and saw at least a dozen more of the things heading straight for her direction.

Frustrated at this development, Proto-Lynn exclaimed:

"Just what is that madwoman doing!?"

 ** _Luna and Lori Versus Proto-Luna..._**

The enraged prototype rocker threw her arm forward, and sent a couple of the artificial moons at Lori and Luna, who braced for impact.

The first one was held back by Lori using her hands, then the second one cracked the first one, but was slightly held back by Luna, who aimed her arms forward and slowly pushed back both moons to Proto-Luna, who immediately threw some more moons at them.

Lori and Luna pushed back the moons, and the artificial bodies crashed and exploded, sending several bits and pieces of debris off to the street, angering Proto-Luna.

"Lori, we can't keep throwing back her moons!" Luna said, with Lori nodding in agreement. "The more of them we destroy, the more debris that falls on the city!"

Proto-Luna clenched her fists and flew towards Lori, who made Luna's cloud fly away before the duo clashed, crashing on a building's wall in the process.

As for Luna, she crashed right on top of a familiar face: Her mother, Rita.

"Mom?!" Luna exclaimed as she got up. "What are you doing here?!"

"Well, that's a bit of a long story," Rita said as she stood up. "But all you need to know, is that I got a little gift for you."

Luna raised an eyebrow, but her confusion was quickly changed for excitement when she saw the sword that Rita held.

And then _that_ excitement turned into distrust. "What's that thing, Mom?"

"It's a Loud Slayer!" Rita excitedly answered. "A weapon made with progenitor blood that'll help you fight your counterpart... Hopefully!"

"Is it safe to touch?" Luna asked as she glanced at the weapon uneasily.

"Absolutely!" Rita answered cheerfully. "In fact, it would definitely be on our best interest if you were the one to touch it."

Luna raised an eyebrow, but seeing as the weapon could probably help them, she hesitantly grabbed it and inspected it for a couple of minutes.

And then the sword glew as it was engulfed in a purple light, which slowly broke off to reveal the Loud Slayer had changed from it's simplistic design, to that of a crescent sword with a purple handle.

"Yes, it worked!" Rita chirped as she clapped wildly. "I had a feeling the weapon would morph once you held it, and I was right!"

Luna, however, was too baffled by the transformation. "Okay, what just happened?"

"You see, being the descendant of one of the progenitors, the Loud Slayer, being made from progenitor blood, reacts to your identity and morphs into one of the several hundred weapons you and your "sisters" used to own," Rita explained. "In this case, it transformed into one of your personal swords: The Flaming Pearl Blade!"

However, the last part wasn't what caught Luna's interest. "You said I used to own a hundred weapons?!"

"Well, it could've been a thousand," Rita argued with a shrug. "The archives are a bit contradictory and vague about it."

As the duo talked about it, Lori and Proto-Luna's fight was brought into a stand-still as the pair held hands and tried to overpower each other, a struggle that cause electricity to surge through both of them. During this struggle, Proto-Luna caught a glimpse of Luna's sword, and her eyes widened.

"That sword..."

Proto-Luna promptly narrowed her eyes and shot an energy blast at Luna, giving Lori enough time to knee her in the gut and send her flying away, continuing their fight.

As for Luna and Rita, the latter noticed the incoming blast, so she jumped in front of Luna and summoned a crystal pillar to block it. And not only did the pillar blocked it, but absorbed it, causing it to explode and send the pair flying back.

"Okay, Luna, I'm sure that's your cue to put the sword to work!" Rita cheerfully exclaimed. "Now go and make me proud, sweetie!"

Luna glanced at the fight between Lori and Proto-Luna, then glanced back at the sword, and she prepared to use it as she thought:

" _Well, at least Lisa and Lily are okay..._ "

 ** _Meanwhile, with Lisa and Lily..._**

The youngest Loud daughters flew towards the battlefield, Lily doing so inside her mech, while Lisa did so using her jet legs. And as they flew, Lisa read the contents inside the Ars Loudia for any information that could help them beat the progenitors.

"This book sure holds a lot of content, but I still can't find anything related to the progenitors' abilities," Lisa said, until she stopped at a peculiar page. "Wait, what's this about?"

The toddler scientist stopped on her tracks, and so did Lily.

"It appears to be some sort of paragraph taken from a book," Lisa scratched her chin and turned to Lily. "Should I read it?"

The baby made the mech shrug, and after thinking about it for a moment, Lisa decided to read it:

" _We tried to resist a dark descent, but we succumb at the very end. The brand new world, shall get a nasty surprise. For in our place, impostors shall rise._ "

Lisa closed the book and raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means the progenitors we're dealing with are impostors."

The girls turned around and saw their father, Mr. Loud, running up to them.

"Father Unit! What are you doing here?!" Lisa exclaimed as the man caught up to them. "And what's that thing you got there?"

"I could ask the same thing to you," the man said while he caught his breath. "Both questions, actually: What are you doing here, and what's that you got on your hand?"

"We're heading to the battlefield in order to provide support for our siblings!" the scientist proudly proclaimed as she handed the book to the man. "As for what's this thing, it's a book that Lucy and Lynn found in the attic, named the "Ars Loudia." It appears to have information related to the progenitors."

"And from the sounds of it, the confirmation that they're not the real progenitors as well..." Lynn Sr. opened the book and checked the line that Lisa just read out loud, sighing sadly before he closed it. "I should've at least humored the idea that Flip was on to something..."

"Wait a minute, Flip once theorized that the progenitors we were dealing with were actually fakes?" Lisa folded her arms and rolled her eyes. "Well, if he's the one who suggested it, I don't blame you for not believing him."

"It's not that I didn't believe him, it's just that I wanted there to be more proof before we jumped to any conclusions," Lynn Sr. looked back at the book sadly. "And this seems to be the proof I was looking for..."

Lisa then glanced back at the weapon held by her father. "Um, you still haven't answered my question, by the way. What is that supposed to be?"

"Oh, this? It's the Loud Slayer, a weapon made by your mother and me from progenitor, or should I say prototype blood, in order to try and score a better chance at hurting the progenitors," Lynn Sr. answered, glancing at the weapon as he added. "We made two, but your mother has the other one."

"You made this thing out of progenitor blood?" Lisa repeated, sounding both shocked and confused. "Okay, regardless of however that works, how would it help us?"

"Trust me, Lisa, once you see it in action, you'll understand," the man sighed. "But now, I need to find Lucy in order to give her the weapon."

Lily and Lisa exchanged looks, and nodded.

"Don't worry, Father Unit, we'll help you locate our gothic sister unit!" Lisa proclaimed, with Lily nodding in agreement. "And in the meantime, you can help us decipher more of the content within the Ars Loudia!"

The man hummed, glanced at the book, and sighed, "I guess that's to be expected from someone as curious as you, right?"

Lisa chuckled and put her arms behind her head. "What can I say? I'm a woman of science!"

The scientist toddler extended her hand towards the man. "Now, let's get going."

The man nodded, grabbed Lisa's hand, and he held it tightly as the girls continued flying across the city in search for Lucy.

 ** _Meanwhile, at the Sweetwater Mansion..._**

Mr. Universe caught his breath as he leaned against a wall, clutching his chest and with steam coming out of his body. The zombies that were once plaguing the house had already been taken care of, so the man tried to catch his breath for as long as possible.

"Mr. Universe!"

The man turned around and saw Catherine and Becky running up to him, with the news van parked right outside the gate.

"Catherine... Becky... I'm glad to see you here..." the man answered in the middle of his breathing. "It seems I used too much energy... I'm totally exhausted."

"It's okay, Universe, I'm here for you now," Catherine told the buff man as she comforted him, and Becky acted as lookout. "Where's Lindsey? Is she okay?"

"She's fine: She left the house with some trustworthy people," Mr. Universe answered. "I'm sure she's currently in a safe spot."

Catherine frowned, but her worry turned into shock when she heard Becky shoot a lighting bolt, which she turned around to see she had shot it right at a peculiar team: That of the older Swagger sisters and the Spokes brothers.

Becky walked towards the team as they checked the person that was electrocuted, who was none other than Sam.

"Why am I not surprised to find you here?" Becky pinched the bridge of her nose and put her hands on her hips as the teenager stood up and dusted herself. "The next thing, you're running around in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, paying no mind to the living dead gating around the place!"

"You don't understand, Becky! I can't stay back at the house right now!" Sam said, twiddling her fingers as the redhead narrowed her eyes. "Tabby went out to see something with her friends before the apocalypse happened, so I need to go find her!"

"Another one of your excuses, I bet!" Becky growled, rolling her eyes at the statement. "When will you learn to stop using your sisters as excuses to get away with what you do!?"

"Becky, wait, hear me out!" Maggie said as she got in between the blonde and the redhead. "It's true that Sam tends to use us as excuses, but she's not lying this time! Tabby really left the house to go see some friends when the zombie apocalypse happened!"

"And how are you sure Sam's not lying again?!" Becky retorted. "You've lived with her more than I did, surely you've learned how to tell when she's lying or not!"

"That's precisely the reason: I've lived with Sam long enough to know when she's lying, and when she's being honest," Maggie bluntly stated. "And right now, she's being completely honest!"

The redhead and the goth exchanged stern looks with each other before Catherine called:

"Becky! I need your help with something!"

Bekcy glanced at the mansion in the distance, then glared at Maggie before she left, allowing the team to catch their breath and relax, if only for a moment.

"Wow, I can't believe you actually advocated for me for once," Sam remarked with a relieved smile. "I thought you were going to take Becky's side-"

"Don't get the wrong idea: I only advocated for you so we could get this stuff over with faster," Maggie sternly interrupted. "After all, the more time we waste, the more likely Tabby's going to get hurt."

The goth lowered her head and frowned. "Especially because we don't know where to look for her."

"Aw, cheer up, Maggie, I'm sure we'll find a clue "We just got to keep looking! We could look at the park, the mall-"

"A giant artificial moon!" Rusty screamed.

Maggie raised an eyebrow. "Well, Tabby's friends with a girl named Luna, but still-"

"No, Maggie!" Sam grabbed Maggie's head and made her look at the sky. "He means an artificial moon's coming our way!"

Instantly noticing the giant artificial celestial body heading straight for them, Maggie reached for her back and took out a jack-in-a-box, which she threw on the ground before she and the rest of the team ran away from the object.

Then, the moon got on top of the jack-in-a-box, which promptly opened its box and somehow carried enough strength to shoot the moon off into the horizon.

"How the heck did that even work?" Sam inquired before she turned to Maggie. "And where were you keeping that thing?"

"First rule of Luan's caste: As long as it's funny, it'll work," Maggie answered with a little smile. "As for where I kept it-"

Suddenly, the team heard something crashing in the sky, and they looked up to see it was the moon, having crashed into some sort of invisible object, which was revealed soon after:

It looked like a giant, floating circus tent, with a ring surrounding it. The moon had crashed to the side of the circus, with some of the tent's pieces falling as debris.

And of course, this just so happened to be where Proto-Luan and the Sadie Hawkins' dates were at, with the resulting shake from the impact interrupting the prototype's torture.

"Is that one of Luna's moons?!" Proto-Luan growled, slamming her fists in a fury. "I thought I told her not to bother me while I'm being entertained!"

With that said, Proto-Luan jumped off her spot and got ready to jump into the outside world. But before she left, she glared at the Sadie Hawkins dates and hissed:

"Stay put! I'll be back soon to torture you some more!"

Proto-Luan jumped out of the tent as the dates, or at least Tabby and Polly Pain, stood up and caught their breath.

Giggles and Haiku weren't so lucky; They were still being mentally hurt within the tent.

"Ugh, my head's spinning," Polly Pain remarked as Tabby leaned on her for balance. "How are we going to get out of here?"

"Not without Giggles and Haiku, that's for sure!" Tabby stated before she looked at the spots the girls were being held at.

"Well, we can't get them out alone," Polly answered. "Even if we could reach their tents, there's no way we'll break them out of their prisons without some help."

Just then, Tabby got an idea. "Polly, cover your ears."

The athlete raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Just trust me on this one," Tabby smiled. "I know how to get us some help, but you'll need to cover your ears first."

Polly took a deep breath and nodded before she covered her ears, which allowed Tabby to take a deep breath and, using her titanic voice, shout out a peculiar name:

"Sam!"

The resulting shouting was so loud, not only did it send shockwaves across the tent, but it could be heard all across the enclosed city.

Rusty was the first to notice the call fo help. "That voice..."

"It's Tabby!" Sam exclaimed. "And it's coming from that floating circus tent thing!"

Maggie narrowed her eyes. "Then that's where we're going to next!"

"But how are we going to get there?" Rocky asked with a concerned tone.

Without wasting time, Sam promptly cracked her fingers and used the same energy she used to make her weapon to create a hoverboard of sorts, which she made long enough to support the whole team.

"Get in!" she told her sister and the brothers.

They nodded and immediately obliged, with Tabby screaming for help once again as the team flew over to the circus tent.

 ** _Meanwhile, at the fight with Proto-Lynn..._**

The call for help reached Ronnie Anne and Clyde's ears, which made them look over the horizon as Lynn remarked:

"I knew it, somebody needs your help more than I do."

"Says the girl with charred hands!" Ronnie Anne sternly rebutted. "Somebody may be in need of help, but we can't leave you alone regardless!"

"You won't," Chandler stated, getting the duo's attention. "You two go check on the call for help, I'll stay here and help her with her counterpart."

"Thanks for the help, Chandler," Clyde said with a smile, then activated his jet shoes. "Let's go, Ronnie Anne!"

However, the girl didn't go with Clyde right away. She looked at Chandler with a concerned look for a while, but she eventually shook it off and grabbed Clyde's hand, with the guy flying away into the distance as the tomboy looked at the duo one last time.

"Do you really think two of you will be enough to beat me?" Proto-Lynn scoffed. "I mean, if you do, then I'm happy you're confident, but even you should know how outmatched you are, right?"

Chandler said nothing in response and generated a blade of lighting on his arm, while Lynn got ready to fight as well.

Proto-Lynn rolled her eyes and powered up, her sclera turning black and her pupils red as she said:

"So be it."

 ** _And then, at Liam's Family's Farm..._**

Tabby's call for help was even heard all the way to Liam's family's farm, where both him and Hattie immediately noticed the call, while Claire and Watterson continued to battle the zombies.

"That voice..." Hattie remarked with shock. "It's one of the four loves!"

"It's Tabby!" Liam exclaimed.

"Yeah, I guess that works too," Hattie rolled her eyes and, like Clyde and Lisa, activated her jet shoes. "They're one of the most important figures in Lincolnism! We need to go help them!"

"But wait!" Liam exclaimed as Hattie grabbed his hand. "What about Claire?!"

"Don't worry about me, I can deal with these things on my own!" Claire answered without even looking at the duo. "You go and help the loves, we'll be fine here!"

"But-"

Hattie flew away while holding Liam's hand tightly, leaving the girl and the transformed dog to fend off against the zombies on their own...

And then a flash pink light happened, and the zombies were promptly cut to tiny pieces.

"What?" Claire said as she looked around the slashed zombies. "What just happened?"

The one responsible for the zombie's destruction appeared soon after, revealing themselves to be none other than Carlota.

"It's you, Progenitor Lola's former champion!" Claire remarked in surprise. "What are you doing here?!"

"I need to talk with you, Claire," Carlota stated. "It's about something important."

"Alright, but can we talk about it after the whole "zombie apocalypse" madness has been dealt with?" the toddler asked. "I mean, I don't want us to be talking, only for some random zombie to come out of nowhere and attack us."

"You don't have to worry about that."

The duo narrowed their eyes and turned around to see the one who said that was none other than Silas, alongside Margo, the yellow champion, and the purple champion, the last of which proclaimed:

"Because this place will be your grave, traitors!"

 ** _And finally, back with Lucy and Luan Versus Proto-Lucy..._**

Both the undead goth girl and the partially angelic comedian heard the call for help, which caused them to look at the direction of the call. For Lucy, this wasn't much of an issue.

For Luan? This gave Proto-Lucy a free chance to kick her right in the jaw, sending her flying into the sky. The prototype then jumped up and generated a dark soul scythe out of thin air, which she prepared to cut the angelic comedian in half.

However, Luan quickly reacted and generated a staff, which she used to block Proto-Lucy's soul scythe and struggle against her, trying to overpower her while also trying to avoid the prototype from overpowering her.

And as the duo continued their struggle, Lucy walked over to the pile of corpses that was the foundation for the gashadokuro, and the instant she saw the corpses looking horrified, a disturbing memory flashed back to her.

That of the dome that Proto-Lucy trapped her in.

"These faces... they look just like the ones in that dome!" Lucy looked up, and saw some corpses suddenly materialize out of thin air, and fall into the pile. "But more importantly, who's sending these corpses?!"

Suddenly, Luan crashed right next to Lucy, and gathered enough strength to literally send her flying away with an energy blast before Proto-Lucy slammed her kick right into her spine.

And as Lucy got up and dusted herself, her counterpart taunted:

"Look around you, Ariel! People you care about, people who are innocent, even people who have nothing to do with anything! They're being killed, and their corpses are being used as fuel for the gashadokuro, all because you and Camael decided to get too curious!"

Lucy clenched her fists and stood up, growling as her counterpart laughed, "How were we supposed to know you'd just screw us over regardless!?"

"How did you never thought for once that I would do it?!" Proto-Lucy argued back as she reached for Luan's wing. "I'm an entity far beyond your comprehension, Ariel, you should've never trusted me!"

"Margo trusted you..." Lucy hissed.

"Margo? Lynn's plaything?! She never trusted me: She just convinced me to give you a bit of a fighting chance," Proto-Lucy answered. "After all..."

The prototype gruesomely tore off Luan's wing, then threw it away as she scoffed:

"If this brat can't do anything to me, what can you hope to accomplish?"

Seeing her older sister in pain, Lucy's eyes widened as she stared at Luan, then narrowed her eyes as she was surrounded by a red aura. The goth then gritted her teeth, and exclaimed as red electricity surged through her:

"I'll kill you!"

A red pillar of light erupted from where Lucy stood, and as her form gained a red tint to it, Proto-Lucy said:

"So, you've finally decided to use your rage, Ariel? This is surely going to be interesting!"

Lucy let out a titanic roar afterwards before she dashed out of the pillar, revealing her form didn't just have a red tint to it, but both her eyes were completely red, and she had what looked like bloody tears going down the sides of her eyes.

Kinda like a certain alternate version of her...

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Hi everyone, Original Lucy here."

The enraged Lucy and Proto-Lucy fought each other, with them being equally matched until Lucy said something and lunged at her counterpart.

"Ariel seems to have brought herself back to life with her anger."

Meanwhile, Proto-Lynn was being held back by Chandler, just as she and Lynn turned around to sense Lucy's furious aura.

"And as that happens, Lynn's making sure nobody else interferes with the ritual."

On another spot, Maggie, Sam, the brothers, Polly, and Tabby were at Proto-Luan's House of Horrors-Tent-Whatever it was, looking around for signs of Haiku and Giggles, before Ronnie Anne and Clyde, then Hattie and Liam arrived out of nowhere and joined them.

"This is going much better than I thought."

The team separated, and next thing Ronnie Anne and Maggie knew, they found themselves in a hallway, with a shadowy figure resembling Luan nearby.

"At last, the Gashadokuro will rise, and the afterlife will be within my reach!"

On the other nightmare, Clyde stood in some blank space with a bunch of Lunas, before the scene changed to show him sitting next to Sam and talking with her.

"I will finally avenge those you killed, Lincoln!"

Speaking of him, Lincoln was shown helping some civillians get to safety along with Penelope, who then took the time to talk with him about something.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Suddenly, Leni appeared to Lincoln and Penelope, and got their attention as she promptly explained something to the boy.

" _Anger That Surpasses The Boundaries of Life and Death! Proto-Luan's Tent Reveals Some Uncomfortable Past Events?!_ "

Lincoln put two fingers on his forehead, and then the scene showed an explosion happening at Proto-Luan's tent, causing Clyde, Ronnie Anne, and pretty much the rest of the team to fly away.

"Don't miss it!"

The final scene showed Haiku and Clyde in a recreation of the Johnson household, where Haiku smiled wide and confessed something, right before she revealed she was crying tears of blood...


	38. Past Traumas

**Oka, we continue the zombie apocalypse on Royal Woods as the divine Loud Family try to fight back against Lucy's counterpart, and stop her and the Gashadokuro from destroying the heavens.**

 **Was that description a bit too epic for this arc? Maybe, but I don't care, I like it. XD**

 **Also, just to bring some promotion to it, "Chains of Reality: Omakes" is going to feature an omake based on a what-if about the arc, for the most part. Think of it like a "Bad End" sort of story.**

 **But first, let's answer some reviews:**

 **1) Nobody245: Someone's making her pissed, alright.**

 **2) TheCartoonist294:**

 *** I'm glad I answered your question effectively.**

 *** Well, assuming things were going the same, and things out here in real life were mostly the same as well... we might've been either at the Proto-Lisa or Proto-Lynn arc by now. That's just an estimate, of course.**

 *** Thanks. :)**

 **3) Observant Guest:**

 *** Dang, well, at least you're enjoying the show, right?**

 *** Yeah... assuming she appears again after this arc...**

 *** By redheaded trio, you mean Liam, Rusty, and Zach, right? 'Cause we already got another trio in Chandler, Penelope, and Cristina here. XD But still, I do agree with you.**

 *** Ah, I see. Good to know.**

 *** Well, they're both technically in an entertainment business, and they're like light and day in terms of personalities. It was only natural that their opposite natures would attract each other.**

 *** Nice choice of music.**

 *** A Carol-Paige team up is coming. But is a Carol-Paige _fusion_ coming?**

 *** Yeah, now that you mention it, maybe I should do something with that relationship...**

 *** This version of Lemy is calmer alright, but also deadlier.**

 *** Yeah, I don't remember when Liberty was thought up, but I feel like she was abandoned after Linka was introduced.**

 *** Never trust a devil who makes deals.**

 *** If he survives the arc.**

 *** Your impressions are correct, my friend.**

 *** I wonder if both of those forms will also share the fact they were underutilized and almost useless in the end? XD**

 **4) ChernoMan:**

 *** Huh, I guess it is kinda weird that I switch focus on a non-Lucy caste character, right?**

 *** And try to somehow help in dealing with the apocalypse, that too.**

 *** I don't expect you to feel pity for them.**

 *** Lacy is a Lincoln-Lynn lovechild, and Lizy is a Lincoln-Lana lovechild.**

 *** Lemy's really one of the only dudes around; Everybody else is either female, an animal, genderless, or some kind of abomination.**

 *** And yet she's nowhere near as bad as her sister...**

 *** Yeah, I think Rita and Lynn Sr. would've been more effective if I had done something with them before this arc. I know! How about a ten-chapter long arc of the Loud parents bonding with their children?**

 *** I think it has been three, yes.**

 *** Well, Sam's been kind of a bad role model since they were kids...**

 *** It can also help make chapters even longer, and we're already in the super chapters side of things. I'm not saying your idea is bad, in fact, I wholeheartedly agree with it, and will try to incorporate it in the future, but right now, I don't have the luxury of going back and rewriting everything just to make things more emotional.**

 *** You talk about Lincoln getting involved like it meant things are going to be good...**

 *** This chapter isn't the finale, but it sure dang has the length of one.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 38: Anger That Surpasses the Boundaries of Life and Death! Proto-Luan's Tent Reveals Some Uncomfortable Past Events?!**

* * *

Back where we left off, Lucy, having been turned into a revenant thanks to her anger, rushed straight for her counterpart and headbutted her in the stomach, all while the prototype just laughed at this action.

"Do you really think just because your anger literally brought you back to life, that it'll be enough to beat me?!" Proto-Lucy exclaimed, flashing a confident smirk. "I'm a God, Ariel! And you're nothing more than an idiotic demigod who bit more than she can chew!"

Lucy backed away a little and tried to push her counterpart, but they clashed hands and entered a struggle instead.

"Don't you get it? No matter what you do now, the gashadokuro will rise, and the heavens will be torn asunder!" the prototype proclaimed with a proudful tone. "And once the afterlife itself joins the battlefield, this apocalypse will be complete! The dead will live again, and they shall raze this unjust, corrupted world!"

"You're wrong! I'll find a way to undo the gashadokuro! I'll find a way to end this apocalypse once and for all!" Lucy hissed, gritting her teeth as her aura grew more volatile. "And even if it's the last thing I do, I'll make sure you die in the process!"

Lucy headbutted her counterpart and sent her flying to some rubble, but soon after, the prototype stood up and chuckled, "How can you kill something that's already dead, Lucille?"

Lucy's aura intensified as she exclaimed:

"I'll find a way!"

 ** _Meanwhile, with Leni..._**

The teenager sent one of the Mortician Club members flying away while some beauty pageant girls hid behind her. And as soon as the member left the scene, Leni sensed Lucy's anger and looked to her direction.

" _Hmm, this anger,_ " the fashionista said to herself. " _I haven't sensed something like this since, like, Lynn used her bersoreker form for the first time..._ "

"Thank you, miss!"

Leni looked down and saw the beauty pageant girls smiling at her. "Thanks for saving us!"

Leni smiled and brushed one of their heads. "It's my pleasure, um... what's your name?"

The girl whose hair Leni was brushing spoke first, "I'm Chinah!"

She then pointed at the girls near her. "And these girls are Claudette, and Jackie!"

"Jakie, Claudette, and Chinah... those are, like, some pretty cute names," Leni loweed her eyelids and crouched down. "But regardless, I totes need to ask you what happened."

"W-Well, we were walking to a beauty pageant, when those gross monsters popped out of the ground and cornered us!" Chinah answered, and Claudette and Jackie nodded in agreement. "We tried to call for help, but nobody came until you did!"

Leni raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you just freeze them with your ice breath or something?"

The girls exchanged confused looks until a voice said:

"They don't know what you're talking about."

Leni stood up and turned around to see none other than Lindsey Sweetwater nearby, ready to use her yo-yo.

"I didn't think I'd see you again so soon, Leni Loud," Lindsey stated, narrowing her eyes.

"Same thing to you, Lindsey Sweetwater," Leni replied, folding her arms behind her back. "Anyway, what do you, like, mean by saying these girls don't know what I'm talking about?"

"Chinah, Jackie, and Claudette have been trained their entire lives to win beauty pageants, and not a single time have they trained for battle," Lindsey explained, with the girls nodding in agreement. "And I'd know better than anybody else, because I've seen them in nearly every beauty pageant I've been at!"

Leni turned to the trio. "Is that true?"

"Well, we don't know what you're talking about, does that count?" Claudette inquired.

Leni closed her eyes and scratched her chin as she thought:

" _Dang it, I knew some people in the new reality could have no idea how to fight, but I never, like, thought they wouldn't know about their abilities at all! Whatever the organization's plans are, I sure hope fixing this ignorance is a top priority!_ "

Then, she opened her eyes and sternly told the trio, "Go back home, girls. Things are totes going to get worse from here."

The trio exchanged looks and promptly ran away, leaving Leni and Lindsey alone.

"I know what you're going to say, but I'm not going to run back home like a scared little kid!" Lindsey stated as she raised her yo-yo. "I'm going to defend Royal Woods with all my power!"

"Well, I, like, hope you have more than the average member of Lola's caste, at least," Leni sighed. "Do whatever you want. But if anything happens to you, or things go horribly wrong, don't come crying to me, or your Father, or anybody else."

Leni walked past Lindsey, and as she did, she sternly said:

"Everybody's putting so much effort into defending the city, the last thing anybody needs is a girl crying after stubbing her toe."

Leni flew away afterwards, and Lindsey glanced at her yo-yo before she clutched it, and ran off to protect the city.

 ** _Meanwhile, with the fight against Proto-Lynn..._**

Lynn took a couple of deep breaths before she turned to look at the horizon, sensing the intense aura of hatred bathing Lucy. And while she did this, Chandler tried to hold back Proto-Lynn.

"That's an aura of hatred unlike any I've seen before," Proto-Lynn remarked before she teleported to Lynn's side. "Should I assume this aura belongs to a certain someone?"

"It must be Lucy..." Lynn remarked, causing Proto-Lynn to fold her arms and smugly smile. "I can't think of anybody else who could hide such overwhelming rage."

Proto-Lynn couldn't help but wonder if Margo was looking at the horizon with a disapproving look.

"Hey, remember what I told you at the beach?" Chandler asked, getting the brunette's attention. "How people tend to project their unlikable sides on to other people?"

Lynn nodded.

"Imagine that this "Rage-fueled Lucy" or whatever is like your dark side," Chandler folded his arms. "What are you going to do about it?"

"The answer to that should be very clear, child," Proto-Lynn scoffed, getting the duo's attention. "Camael can't do anything about it: As soon as Ariel turned into a revenant-"

Then, the jock clenched her fists with determination and proclaimed, "I'm going to calm her down, one way or another!"

"Wait, what?!" was all Proto-Lynn could say before Lynn ran away using her super speed.

Proto-Lynn clenched her fist and gritted her teeth as the redhead smiled, folded his arms, and said, "I bet you were expecting her to just give up right then and there, didn't you?"

The prototype jock charged a fireball and shot it at Chandler, who whistled and jumped on a cloud moments before the fireball hit him. One fiery explosion later, Chandler waved goodbye to Proto-Lynn and flew away, leaving the proto-jock to take some deep breaths and sit down.

"Whatever, as long as Lucy keeps her part of the deal, I don't care what happens," the prototype thought about it and raised an eyebrow. "That being said, would she throw away that promise as soon as she realized she wasn't getting enough bodies for the gashadokuro?"

Proto-Lynn thought about it some more, but eventually shrugged it off, having no time for something so... disturbing.

 ** _Proto-Luan's Circus Tent..._**

The team of Sam, Maggie, and the Spokes brothers crashed through the tent and landed right next to Polly and Tabby, who backed away as they saw the team coming.

"Polly!" Rusty exclaimed as he ran up to and hugged the girl. "Oh, I'm glad you're okay!"

"I'm happy to see you're fine too, Rusty," Polly replied, patting the boy's back.

"I knew it'd work!" Tabby chirped. "Although, I didn't expect you to bring more people too..."

"The boys came along with us, since they were looking for you too," Maggie explained. "We came here as soon as we heard your call for help; What's wrong?"

"Um, look around you?" Polly suggested. "I'm sure one look at this place will tell you exactly what's wrong."

The team obliged and looked around, with the bizarre status of the place immediately getting their attention:

The walls seemed to be made out of some rotten wood, with comedy and tragedy masks stuck in them, with glowing eyes that avoided contact with the team. There were also clocks floating around the place, constantly ticking as their levers moved forward and backwards at random.

One thing was very clear, though: The longer the team looked at the place, the more shivers were sent down their spines.

"Okay, yeah, this entire place just feels wrong," Maggie said.

"Yeah, it's definitely a good thing we got here in time," Sam remarked before she turned to Tabby. "Let's get out of here before anything happens-"

"Wait, we can't leave yet!" Tabby replied. "Yes, I called you because we needed help to escape, but all four of us need help: Me, Polly, Haiku, and Giggles!"

"Then where the heck are the last two?" Sam asked while she looked around. "I don't see them anywhere!"

Tabby and Polly pointed up, and everybody looked up to see a pair of tents, with Haiku and Giggles' screams coming out of them.

"Okay, fine, I see where they are," Sam shook her head and folded her arms. "But I can only create one board with my swag energy, so we'll have to-"

Suddenly, Clyde and Ronnie Anne crashed through the wall and landed nearby the team, with Clyde using his jet shoes for a safer landing.

"Alright, this is the place where the screaming came from," Clyde remarked as Ronnie Anne stood up.

Once Ronnie dusted herself, she turned to the duo and waved hello. "Hi Rock-O! Skate-O!"

Polly waved back, and Tabby slowly put her hand down as Sam and Maggie threw glares at the tomboy's direction.

"Who are these kids?" Maggie asked, raising an eyebrow as Clyde and Ronnie Anne walked towards them.

"The tomboy with the ponytail is Ronnie Anne, a former bully who moved out of Royal Woods a year or so ago, and who recently decided to come back," Sam explained to her sister before she turned to look at Clyde. "I have no idea who's the other one, though."

"I'm Clyde, Lincoln's friend!" the boy angrily said, earning a confused look from Sam. "I was with him when you pushed us away from going to your school's music room with you and Luna!"

"I push away a lot of people who have even the slightest chance of getting between me and Luna," Sam folded her arms. "I'm gonna need you to be more specific."

"Ugh, whatever, that doesn't matter!" Ronnie Anne stated. "We came here because we heard somebody calling for help!"

"Oh really? You heard Tabby's call for help and decided to come?" Sam chuckled. "Good, no really, I find that totally believable! In fact, is there anybody else who'd like to join the club!?"

Just then, Liam and Hattie crashed through the tent and landed next to Ronnie Anne and Clyde, prompting a groan from Sam. "Why did I have to talk?"

Hattie promptly separated from Liam, ran up to Tabby, and bowed down as she said, "Love of Family, your humble servant Hattie has come for your aid!"

And then Sam grabbed Hattie's shirt and lifted her up. "Yeah, listen, Maggie and I already came here to rescue Tabby, so you can just bugger off and let us do our work!"

"Do you really think I'm going to give up that easily?!" Hattie snapped. "When I joined Lincolnism, I swore-"

"I don't care about you and your beliefs!" Sam growled before she spun the girl around. "We got enough people here, so like I said, bugger off!"

"Sam, wait, we could use this to our advantage!" Tabby exclaimed as she snatched Hattie away from the rocker. "I mean sure, Hattie can be quite annoying, but the more people we get, the easier it'll be to rescue Haiku and Giggles!"

Maggie and Sam silently exchanged looks.

"The one we we should try to rescue first is Haiku, though," Polly Pain stated as she glanced at Haiku's tent. "The longer she stays inside that torture simulation, the more likely her caste's ability will activate!"

"The one about turning pain into something more enjoyable, right?" Tabby asked. "I didn't even think about that."

"Alright then, in that case, Tabby, Liam, Hattie, and Ronnie Anne will go look for Giggles, while Polly, the brothers, and I will go look for Haiku," Clyde said, only coming to a stop when he turned to Sam and Maggie. "I don't know what you two could do, honestly-"

"We're taking Tabby with us, grabbing her girlfriend along for a ride, and getting the hell out of here!" Maggie sternly stated as she walked up to Tabby and grabbed her hand. "And the faster we leave, the better!"

"Maggie, wait!" Tabby exclaimed as she tried to stand in place. "We can't leave without Haiku and Giggles!"

"We can't stay here either, Tabby!" Maggie argued in return.

"We don't have to stay here!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed, getting the duo's attention. "As soon as we break Goth-O and Clown-O's friends out of their prisons, we'll leave faster than the audience in one of Tabby's earlier concerts!"

"Hey, that only happened one time!" Sam snapped.

Maggie narrowed her eyes and turned to her sister. "Tabby, do you really trust this brat? I mean, I understand if you trust the nerd, he seems pretty reliable-"

"People tend to say I give off a trustworthy vibe," Clyde boasted as he adjusted his glasses.

"But if I remember correctly, this girl used to be one of the toughest bullies in all of Royal Woods, and there's nothing to suggest she's changed since then," Maggie folded her arms. "Can you really say you trust her?"

Tabby glanced at Ronnie Anne, who looked away with a concerned tone, then to Polly, who nodded with a reassuring smile. Tabby returned the smile, turned back to Maggie, and stated:

"I trust her."

Maggie and Sam's eyes widened, while Ronnie Anne looked at the younger rockstar as she explained herself:

"Yes, I know Ronnie Anne has a bad reputation for being a bully, and you know what, I believed that at first. But as I hung out with her, and I got to see her with my own eyes, I realized, she's not a bully. Not anymore, at least."

Tabby turned to Ronnie Anne and smiled. "She's just a girl who's trying to move on from her past image. She's just trying to help now."

Ronnie Anne and Tabby exchanged smiles while Maggie rubbed her forehead with a slight hint of frustration.

"Well, I guess there's no helping it; if you say you trust her, we'll have to deal with it," Maggie folded her arms. "As for what we'll do, I'll go with Tabby's team to check on the Giggles girl, while Sam will go with the nerd's team to check the Haiku girl."

"What?! No fair!" Sam whined. "Why do I have to go with the nerd!?"

"It'll be a chance for you to apologize for your behavior to him earlier," Maggie sternly stated as she folded her arms. "There's so many people you've been rude to that you haven't apologized for, and it's time you change that!"

Sam narrowed her eyes. "But Dad said-!"

"Dad's not here anymore, Sam! And you know why?! Because he did the exact same thing as you, and it sent him flying right out of the picture!" Maggie snapped, narrowing her eyes. "Now woman up, accept you did something wrong, and go with that boy and apologize for what happened!"

With that said, Maggie went to the rest of Giggles Team, who were getting ready to head to the tent.

Ronnie Anne pointed forward. "Alright, Tabby, lead the way!"

Just then, Clyde snickered, earning an annoyed look from the tomboy. "What's so funny, Nerd-O?"

Clyde smiled. "You called Tabby by her actual name."

Ronnie Anne flinched as the team's eyes looked straight at her. "That's just 'cause I can't think of a nickname for her at the moment!"

"It's alright, Ronnie Anne, I don't find it that bothersome anymore," Tabby answered. "And besides, we don't have time to waste: Follow me!"

And so, Haiku Team and Giggles team separated and headed straight for the girls' tents.

 ** _Meanwhile, with Lincoln and Penelope..._**

The snow-haired boy and redheaded girl helped some civillians get out of the street: Lincoln providing them a way home, while Penelope took care of the zombies surrounding them.

"Be careful for the zombies with a diamond caste mark!" Lincoln told Penelope. "They'll reflect your attacks back at you!"

"And how do you even know that!?" Penelope snapped.

"I saw one of those zombies reflecting Lynn's fireball right back at her!" Lincoln answered, focusing solely on the civillians. "Trust me, seeing it happen with your own eyes isn't worth it!"

Penelope rolled her eyes and promptly turned the floor icy, causing the zombies to slip and slide as Penelope morphed the floor into a loop, with it circling and sending the zombies sliding off into the distance.

And just in time for Lincoln to take care of the last civillian, too.

"Okay, that's the last of them," the boy turned to the redhead as she turned the floor back to normal. "You know, when we were paired up as everybody split, I didn't think we would be able to work together efficiently, but we've managed to work just fine so far-"

"Remind me again why are we doing this?" Penelope sternly asked. "I mean, I know that as a god or whatever you are, you "work in mysterious ways," but it couldn't hurt to try explain yourself, right?"

"Penelope, I don't expect you to understand, but just as there are many people who can protect themselves in Royal Woods, there's just as many people who are completely defenseless," Lincoln responded as he walked up to Penelope and put a hand on her shoulder. "And if we don't help them, they're going to be killed by the zombies, or something even worse!"

An image of Calliope's demise flashed in Penelope's mind, which made her pause for a moment, lower her head, and say:

"Defenseless, huh?"

Hearing a tone of pity in the redhead's voice, Lincoln helped the last kid get up before he looked at Penelope with a raised eyebrow. This made the redhead look elsewhere and point out:

"Even so, there's only so much people we can help, you know?"

"You have a point there."

Lincoln and Penelope turned around to see none other than a faint image of Sincoln leaning against a tree, arms folded behind his back and a smug smile plastered across his face.

"However, you have to keep in mind how Junior tends to act," he said. "One minute, he'll do selfish things to get to what he wants, and the next he'll do everything he can to help everybody, or fix his mistakes. He's a paradox like that."

Penelope rolled her eyes. "Yes, I know, but still-"

"Wait a minute," Lincoln turned to the redhead. "You can see him?!"

Penelope and Sincoln looked at the boy with confusion as he glanced between them.

"Of course she can see me," Sincoln finally answered. "Is there any reason she shouldn't?"

"But-"

"Lincoln, there's another version of you standing out in the open. It's kinda hard to miss," the redhead answered. "Although, if it makes you feel a little better, I can't believe what I'm seeing either."

Lincoln shook off the shock, and glared at his counterpart. "What are you doing here, Sincoln?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm here to make sure you don't stray too far from what you should be focusing on, Junior," Sincoln answered as he walked to his counterpart. "Granted, the fact you've been doing that for a while now might imply I'm not doing a good job at it-"

Suddenly, Lincoln slapped Sincoln's arm away and glared at him as he hissed:

"Don't try to do anything funny to me, Sincoln! I kicked your butt once, and I can kick it again!"

"How, if I may ask?" Sincoln scoffed smugly. "I'm only a fragment of your mind at this moment, Junior. I have no physical body for you to attack."

And then a large crystal shard phased through the mad god and continued flying until it crashed on a zombie's head, with the evil Lincoln left unharmed.

A fact that greatly upset the one who shot the shard, Penelope. "Well dang it, he really can't be hit."

"Okay, if you're finished trying to fight an impossible battle, then I need to tell you something," Sincoln said as he dusted himself. "Your friends are in desperate need of your help, and if you don't help them, who knows what'll happen to them?"

"My friends... you mean Clyde and Ronnie Anne?" Lincoln narrowed his eyes. "What are you going to do to them?"

"Me? I'm not going to do anything to them; Luan, however, might have some sick ideas for her enjoyment," Sincoln folded his arms. "And if you don't want to see them as mentally broken individuals, I suggest you head to their location right now."

"How? I don't even know where they are!" Lincoln answered.

"By using the divine technique only known by divine entities, of course," Sincoln shrugged. "The technique simply known as omnipresence."

Lincoln raised an eyebrow and Penelope said: "Don't trust him, Lincoln! He might be trying to pull a trick... on yourself... man, this is so confusing!"

"I know you won't believe my words, so the only thing left to do is witness it yourself," Sincoln touched his forehead with his index and middle finger. "Do as I'm doing right now, and think, "To the place where I'm needed the most."

Lincoln folded his arms, unsure of whether to trust his counterpart or not.

"Fine, don't do it if you want," Sincoln shrugged. "But, it's entirely up to you whether your sisters get help or not. And if they even survive their encounters with their counterparts."

The suggestion that his sisters would be in danger seemed enough to convince Lincoln, as he immediately put his index and middle finger on his forehead and thought:

" _To the place where I'm needed the most._ "

Not even a second later, Lincoln teleported out of the place, leaving Penelope alone with Sincoln, who said:

"I'll give your kind a five out of ten, your mother has a much better body than you."

Sincoln teleported away, and Penelope rubbed her forehead and took a deep breath. "What the heck just happened?"

 ** _Meanwhile, with Lisa, Lily, and Lynn Sr..._**

Lisa and Lily continued to fly in search for Lucy, with their "Father" Lynn Sr. still tagging along, though he seemed more worried than before.

It probably had to do with the fact Lisa seemed to have her eyes glued to the Ars Loudia.

"This tome is quite extraordinary! Not only does it have pages about corruption, but also of historical counterparts of our sisters!" Lisa chirped as she and Lily focused on the book. "It seems that among Lynn's counterparts there are Joan of Arc, Napoleon, and-"

"Girls, I know you're probably curious about a lot of things, but could you please focus on finding Lucy?" Lynn Sr. asked.

Lisa, however, failed to listen as she then added, "Huh, one of Luan's counterparts was Dante Alighieri? I guess there's a reason his, or in this case "her" work was called The Divine Comedy-"

"Please listen to me!" the man exclaimed. "I need to give Lucy this weapon right now!"

"Now that you mention it again, how's this "Loud Slayer" weapon you and mother unit created supposed to help?" Lisa inquired as she changed her focus to the road. "Just because it's made of progenitor blood doesn't mean it guarantees victory against the progenitors, right?"

"No, but the weapons have a special property that allows them to transform into one of the thousand divine weapons you and your sisters used to own, which could potentially help a lot, but still wouldn't guarantee a victory," Lynn Sr. explained.

And it wasn't long before he noticed the toddlers looking at him with confused looks. "Listen, I know what I'm saying only brings up more questions, but we don't have the time to answer everything! I need you to focus on finding Lucy!"

"Well, okay then," Lisa rolled her eyes and turned her focus back to the road. "Hey, maybe we could ask Leni for help?"

"I guess that's an option," Lynn Sr. raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"

The genius girl pointed forward. "'Cause she's heading straight for us!"

The girls flew up and Lynn Sr. narrowly dodged a monstrous Mortician Club Member, who screamed as they were sent flying straight into a building, with Leni in hot pursuit.

Once the monstrous member crashed on the wall, Leni kicked them and sent them through the building, then plummeted them to the ground with a kick, with the resulting smoke cloud glowing as the member turned back to normal.

Leni landed nearby soon after, then raised her arms and spread them wide, dispersing the smoke cloud to reveal the club member was none other than the female member with buck teeth, who panicked and fled as soon as she saw the teenager.

"And there goes another one of the Mortician Club members," Leni remarked as she dusted herself. "That should make about three, right? Only one or two more left, since Lucy and Haiku are already taken care of."

"Leni!"

The teenager turned around and saw the toddlers and the man approaching her.

"Well, if it isn't Lisa, Lily, and "Dad," she greeted, putting air quotes on the last one. "What, like, brings you here to meet me?"

"Nothing in particular, really," Lisa answered. "Lily and I were flying around, trying to find Lucy for Dad, and we just so happened to spot you on the distance, so we decided to check if you needed assistance."

"Well, as you can clearly see, I totes got everything under control, so you don't need to worry about anything," Leni turned to the man. "What about you, Dad? What are you doing here?"

The man glanced at the weapon, then back at Leni, and paused before he showed the weapon to the girl, "I'm here to deliver this Loud Slayer weapon to Lucy."

Leni eyed the weapon and raised an eyebrow. "And, like, what exactly is this supposed to be?"

"Apparently, according to father unit's description, it's a weapon made with prototypical blood or something, which is supposed to morph into one of the weapons our counterparts held as soon as it's touched by one of our sisters," Lisa explained, with Lily nodding in agreement. "And for some reason, he needs to give this specific weapon to Lucy."

"Well, if that's the case, there's only one thing to do," Leni turned her attention to her scientist sister. "Lisa, put your index and middle finger on your forehead and, like, mentally ask to look for Lucy's location."

Normally, this would be the part where Lisa would either question what were Leni's intentions, or debunk the idea that doing as she said would provide any results with some logical reasoning.

However, the scientist had an entirely different response:

"Is that one of my divine powers?!"

Leni smiled. "Try it out and tell me yourself."

The scientist exchanged a witty laugh with Lily, then did as instructed. She put her index and middle fingers on her forehead and mentally asked:

" _Where's Lucy's location?!_ "

Immediately, Lisa found herself right above Royal Woods, even above the night dome that was covering the city, as she now had the ability to see the entire city at once. However, this ability was limited this time, as it immediately took her to Lucy's location at the city square...

Where the scientist got to see Lucy exhausted, and her revenant form for a split second before she turned back to her base form, which now looked the same as back when she was alive.

She also saw Luan, still in her half-angel form, running up to Lucy's side while Proto-Lucy approached them, not looking that badly bruised.

And at that point, the vision ended.

"Lucy's at the city square, with Luan and prototype Lucy!" Lisa told the team. "Lucy and Luan look exhausted, while prototype Lucy looks like she's ready to kill them!"

"Then we don't have time to waste!" Lynn Sr. stated. "Leni, we'll leave you to your devices! We gotta go help Lucy!"

Leni waved her hand in a dismissive manner. "Yeah, I know."

So the trio got ready to leave, but just as Lynn Sr. grabbed Lisa's hand and she flew slightly up, Leni remarked:

"Before you leave, can I give you a little request? As soon as you encounter something that's far beyond your level... run. And don't even think about looking back, just run as fast as you can."

"Why the ominous warning, older sister unit?" Lisa inquired.

"Lisa, you may have finally unlocked some of your caste's powers, and Lily has a mecha that can help her in a fight, but that doesn't change the fact everybody else has far more experience dealing with the bizarre things going in the city," Leni smiled with a slight concern. "And besides, if I don't tell you to be careful, how can I trust your curiosity to not overtake your common sense?"

Although slightly offended by her older sister's remarks, and also mildly surprised that Leni said such remarks in the first place, Lisa shrugged it off and flew along with Lynn Sr. and Lily to Lucy's location, with Leni waving goodbye as they flew away.

 ** _Back at Proto-Luan's circus, Giggles' tent..._**

Giggles team, consisting of Maggie, Ronnie Anne, Tabby, and Hattie and Liam, looked around the tent keeping Giggles prisoner: It looked just as bizarre as the rest of the circus tent, with the only difference being Giggles' held by chains in the middle of the room.

"Okay, everybody, this is some kind of circus tent designed to mentally torment whoever enters it," Maggie answered as she took a look around. "I suggest we stay on-guard as we search for these "Haiku" and "Giggles" girls."

The goth turned to Tabby and narrowed her eyes. "That is, unless somebody wants to admit that leaving this accursed place would be a better idea!"

"I said it once and I'll say it again, we're not leaving without Haiku and Giggles!" Tabby snapped at her older sister. "Especially because, if we don't get her or Giggles out soon, there's the chance that they..."

Tabby's glare turned into a concerned frown as she lowered her head, prompting Maggie to ask, with a concerned tone, "They what?"

Polly looked elsewhere and answered, "They'll wind up being corrupted."

Just as the team's eyes widened and realized what that meant, everybody turned their focus towards the tortured Giggles, who remained silent as the whole place started to glitch, until eventually each team member found themselves in a peculiar situation.

Although, bizarrely enough, Maggie and Ronnie Anne were in the same room: A recreation of Luan's high school.

"What is this place?" Ronnie Anne asked as she took a look around. "I mean, it looks like a school, but I've never seen one of these before..."

Maggie clutched her chest and took several deep breaths, which caught Ronnie Anne's attention. "Um, is something wrong?"

Then, in the distance, a shadowy sillouethe of Luan appeared, sending shivers down Maggie's spine, and confusing Ronnie Anne.

"Hey, isn't that Joke-O's image?" the tomboy asked. "What's she doing-"

And then Maggie screamed and ran away, with Ronnie Anne and the shadowy figure chasing her afterwards, a fact that caught Ronnie Anne's attention.

" _Joke-O's shadow image is chasing after the girl too?_ " she thought as she glanced at the shadowy Luan. " _Why would it do tha-_ "

Suddenly, both Ronnie Anne and Maggie slipped on banana peels, the latter screaming while the former tried to use the peels as skates to get closer to Maggie... at least, until they both reached some stairs and were sent flying from the top.

While Ronnie Anne just hit the floor face-first, however, Maggie screamed again as an audible *CRACK* was heard, followed by the girl sliding off on something that looked like oil.

Hearing the girl's screams, Ronnie Anne stood up, slid on the oil and followed her until she crashed on top of a bunch of feathers, with another *CRACK* being heard.

Ronnie crashed on the pile of feathers, and this caused them to fly away and reveal Maggie inside: Covered in feathers and oil, with both her leg and her arm broken.

Then, as if to, the shadow Luan appeared, grew much bigger, and laughed like a maniac as she split into several more shadow people, who joined in the laughter as Maggie covered her face with her good arm and cried.

" _Now I get it: This whole thing is just a nightmare this girl's having, about some prank Joke-O did to her a long time ago,_ " Ronnie Anne folded her arms and gritted her teeth. " _To think Joke-O would be capable of doing such things..._ "

Ronnie Anne turned around and faced the mob of laughing shadows, with Luan's shadow standing out rather blatantly across the crowd. And with the laughter quickly getting on her nerves, the tomboy stood up and exclaimed:

"Stand back!"

Ronnie Anne swung her lighting blade at the shadowy Luan, cutting her in half. However, this didn't stop the shadowy figure from laughing maniacally as the world slowly broke and then shattered into pieces, returning the duo back to reality.

Just in time for Ronnie Anne and Giggles to exchange angry looks.

"Were you the one who created that Joke-O illusion, Clown-O?!" the tomboy snapped at the clown girl, who continued to look at her with a bloodshot glare. "What kind of sick joke was that!?"

"H-Huh?" Maggie asked as she realized she was back in reality. "The... the nightmare's over?"

Maggie looked around until she spotted Ronnie Anne. "D-Did you do something about it?"

"The illusion? Well, I cut the shadowy Joke-O in half, and that somehow caused the whole thing to shatter," Ronnie Anne explained. "That wasn't even my intention, I was hoping that cutting shadow Joke-O would make her and the other shadows stop laughing."

And then Tabby, Hattie, and Liam returned to the spot as Giggles growled:

"She never stopped..."

But she was ignored, and Ronnie Anne promptly ran to the team and helped them get up. "Are you guys okay? Where did you go?"

"Well, I wound up in one of Dad's final concerts, but luckily when things got too loud, I covered my ears and the... whatever it was ended," Tabby answered. "But how did you guys get out of your stuff, whatever that was?"

"I slashed the shadowy Joke-O in half, and that somehow got rid of it," Ronnie Anne explained, then glared at Giggles. "And I get the feeling Clown-O over there is just as angry about it as I am."

This prompted Giggles to repeat:

"She never stopped... she never stopped... she never stopped..."

With a cracking sound, Giggles' eyes opened wide and she unleashed a pillar of light as she yelled:

"She never stopped laughing!"

 ** _Meanwhile, with Haiku Team..._**

They weren't doing much better; They also got stuck in some illusions, nightmares, or whatever it is they were put in, and in this case, Clyde and Sam got placed in the same nightmare:

A massive, blank room with like a million of Lunas, each periodically aiming a weapon at their heads and pulling the trigger, ending their lives, only to come back to life soon after.

"Sam, what's up with this place?!" Clyde asked as he tried to look away from the Lunas.

"Its my nightmare; The fate of many Lunas across the universe," Sam answered while she covered her ears and tried to look away. "For every dimension where Luna and I get together, or whee we're happy, there's another one where either my counterpart's action, or the pressure of that world, drives that world's Luna to-"

*BANG*

"End it all..."

"So that's why you're so obsessively protective to Luna," Clyde frowned and brushed Sam's hair with sympathy. "You don't want this world's Luna to suffer the same fate as these other Lunas?"

Sam sadly nodded, and as if by some miracle, the Lunas stopped shooting their own brains out, allowing the duo to take a bit of a breather. So, Clyde sat next to Sam as she explained:

"So, yeah, I've had this nightmare constantly, and I've been trying to keep Luna happy in order to avoid it from turning into a reality."

"But if that's the case, why would you force her to be your girlfriend, and keep her leashed up with that weird energy of yours?" Clyde asked, earning an exasperated look from the rocker. "In my opinion, that doesn't sound like something that would make her happy-"

"Didn't you just see the massacre just now!? Anybody would be driven to do anything in order to not experience that nightmare again!" Sam snapped. "Sometimes, I would even resort to getting drunk, just for a chance to get the nightmare out of my head!"

Clyde gasped. "You resort to underage drinking!"

"It's more like I buy a soda at that guy Flip's store, and get drunk off that," Sam scratched the back of her head. "I don't know what he puts in that drink, but it's apparently legal, I take it whenever I can."

Clyde took a deep breath. "I guess I can see your point."

A pregnant silence developed between the duo...

"H-Hey... I'm sorry for the way I acted towards you and and Luna's brother a couple weeks ago, alright?" Sam spoke. "It's just that, ever since I had this "Luna-kills-herself" nightmare, I just can't trust anybody that could potentially ruin Luna's day with their bad luck!"

Clyde snickered. "I guess Lincoln's legendary bad luck is well known in your school?"

"My school? Try all of Royal Woods!" Sam answered sternly. "Whenever I hear about this Lincoln guy, it's either about his bad luck, or something so disturbing, I don't even want to talk about it!"

"It's okay, I'm not going to force you to tell me about it," Clyde sighed. "But, you know, you'll have to apologize to him too, right?"

"I know... I just don't know if he'll really accept or understand my point of view," Sam sighed. "I mean, I suddenly had this dream where a person I didn't know was so important to me, wound up dying because of something I did, and ever since then, I've tried my hardest to prevent that nightmare from happening again. Who would ever understand that?"

Clyde reached for his pocket, and took out a picture of him, Penelope, and Calliope, all sharing a hug and smiling wide like a family. After looking at the picture for a while, the boy said stood up and said:

"I would."

Then he slowly turned around, and as soon as he saw a familiar face glaring at him-that being Haiku's face-he calmly saved the picture, paused...

Then aimed his arm cannon and the face and shot it, immediately shattering the nightmare and returning the duo to reality, where Haiku shivered in her spot and covered her face as she screamed in pain.

Sam looked at the agonizing poet, then turned back to Clyde and said, "How did you-"

"I had a feeling I was being watched, and Haiku has always been one of the more jealous girls I've seen," Clyde answered, looking strictly and sternly at Haiku as he turned his arm cannon back into an arm. "I just didn't think she'd drag someone else into the mix as well."

Haiku took a couple breaths, parted her fingers to reveal her bloodshot eye, then giggled as she asked, "You... remember?"

"Now there, don't jump into conclusions, I'm not suggesting that I share my memories with my counterpart," Clyde clarified, waving his hand in a dismissive manner. "I'm just saying that I remember how you tended to be very jealous, even before we found out about the whole "old reality" thing."

Clyde folded his arms and shook his head. "Of the dates, you were always the most disapproving when you saw me with Penelope, and believe it or not: Putting me in the same nightmare as someone who's desperately trying to make sure their love interest survives, is a little on the nose."

Sam's eyes widened after hearing how Clyde described her, though her attention was soon caught when Haiku suddenly asked:

"Why did you stop?"

Clyde and Sam raised an eyebrow, and the girl explained:

"Why would you only shoot me once? Do you not hate me? Do you not love me? Whatever you feel... you should be hurting me..."

"What are you talking about, Haiku? Hurting you won't get-" Clyde said, only to realize what was going on soon after. "Wait, don't tell me it's starting to act up?!"

"What's starting to act up?!" Sam asked.

"The Lucy caste's passive ability!"

The duo turned around and saw Polly Pain and the Spokes brothers running up to them.

"Where did you guys go?" Sam inquired.

"A nightmare of sorts, involving Lynn and Margo, but that doesn't matter!" Polly looked at Haiku as she explained, "Haiku right now is being affected by the Lucy caste's passive ability: After a while, every single time she gets hurt, her body makes that pain pleasurable!"

Clyde's eyes widened. "And since this place is supposed to be a place of constant torture-"

"Not only would the ability activate, but it would overload due to how much pain she's suffering at the moment!" Sam interjected, backing away as Haiku uncovered her face and giggled some more. "She's probably on so much pain-pleasure, she's gone insane!"

Polly clenched her fists and looked back at the girl. "Haiku, listen to me! We're going to get you out of there, just hold on a little longer!"

"Help me? Free me? Don't lie to yourself, Polly, I was a lost cause from the start... in fact, we were all a lost cause from the start..." Haiku lowered her head and laughed wildly. "As soon as the lord and savior decided he wanted to play with everyone's feelings, he made us the four loves so we'd be blamed for his actions! So everybody would think we were the puppetmasters, pulling their heats' strings, while it was Lincoln who pulled everybody's strings! And as he pulls the strings, he forces everyone to commit horrors that nobody wishes to commit, and those that do wish to commit them are hopeless to do it on their own volition!"

"Crap, she's really gone insane; She's ranting on about Lincoln again!" Polly frowned. "Even if we get her out of here, it might take a while for her to go back to normal."

Haiku laughed some more, then suddenly stopped, and looked at Clyde, who took a step back as the girl spoke:

"Clyde... you still wonder what happened that day, don't you?"

The boy raised an eyebrow, and next thing he and the team knew, they were transported to another illusion, this one resembling... Penelope's house.

"This is the place, isn't it?" Haiku asked as she suddenly fell and hit the floor, with no reaction whatsoever. "The place where your nightmare began."

And then something else materialized: Calliope, who was reading a mountain of mail. Hate mail, to be exact.

"Calliope?!" Clyde gasped, only to angrily snap at the goth, "How do you know about this, Haiku!? I never told you anything about this!"

Haiku stood up and dusted herself as she replied, with an unfaltering smile. "You don't have to."

Then, Haiku created a scythe out of her soul energy, and walked towards Calliope, who could only turn around and look at the girl with shock as she raised her weapon and said:

"I was already there."

One swing later, and Calliope was nowhere to be seen. The only thing left of her were the blood stains that splashed Clyde's clothes, the walls, and Haiku's own clothes.

She then turned to Clyde and sporting a look befitting of one of those Japanese horror ghost girls, she smiled wide and confessed:

"I was _always_ there."

Haiku snapped her fingers and ended the illusion, turning everything back to nomral as Clyde put two and two together.

"Haiku... you... you did it, didn't you?" he asked, his pupils shrinking as he stammered, "Y-You... killed Calliope?"

Haiku closed her eyes and giggled.

"Clyde... I wish I could ask for forgiveness... but the truth is..."

Haiku lifted her head and opened her eyes, crying tears of blood as she said:

"Even Lincoln won't forgive me for what I've done."

An intense light burst from Haiku's position, causing a pillar of light to emerge and send Clyde and the rest of the team flying into the walls. And the light only intensified as it engulfed the room, and caused it to explode, sending everybody flying off to the ground.

Clyde managed to regain his footing with his jet shoes, and he helped the rest of the team land safely as well.

And then another explosion happened, this time with the Giggles team falling and crashing on the ground, getting Haiku team's attention.

The first to react was Sam, who ran up to Maggie-whose arm and leg were healed, not to mention she was no longer covered in feathers-who she helped stand up while the gothic teenager cried.

"Maggie, calm down, it's all over now!" Sam told her sister, trying to calm her down. "You don't have to cry anymore-!"

"She's hunting me down! She wants to break me and do things to me for her own entertainment!" Maggie cried, clutching her sister's shoulders. "I don't want to be her friend anymore! I don't wanna be her plaything!"

"I know you don't, sis, but everything's fine now! The nightmare's over!" Sam said as she caressed Maggie's cheek. "Now, look at me in the eyes, and take a couple deep breaths."

Maggie obliged and took a couple of deep breaths as Sam gave her a reassuring look, and brushed her hair as gently as possible. And once she calmed down a bit, Maggie hugged Sam's chest and cried some more.

"There, there, let it all out," Sam patted Maggie's back. "Now, tell me, what happened?"

"I relived the day of the prank... where she broke my arm and leg and laughed about it..." Maggie answered, her voice muffled by Sam's chest. "And it would've continued if it wasn't for the ponytail girl..."

Sam's eyes widened and she turned to Ronnie Anne as she asked, "Are you talking about Ronnie Anne?"

"Yes..." Maggie sniffed and separated from Sam. "While I was crying and being laughed, she literally shattered the nightmare and defended me from the one who forced me to go through with it..."

Sam glanced at Maggie, then turned back to the tomboy on the ground. She smiled, and said:

"Well, if she did that... then maybe she's not so bad after all."

"Dang it, not you too!" Clyde exclaimed as he ran to Ronnie Anne's side and helped her get up. "Are you okay?!"

"Yeah, believe it or not, I've had worse falls in my life," Ronnie Anne said as she dusted herself. "However, we weren't able to get Clown-O to come out of her prison. If anything, it seems that we ticked her off."

"Well, we didn't have much success either," "In fact, I wound up discovering something that greatly upsets me."

Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"...The killer of my and Penelope's daughter, Calliope," Clyde looked elsewhere and folded his arms. "It's Haiku."

Ronnie Anne's eyes widened, but before she could try to deny the fact, a maniacal laughter was heard in the distance. And as soon as both teams looked up, they saw why:

Haiku and Giggles were floating, both surrounded by a pink aura, and with a giant creature right behind them:

Haiku had a giant nurse-like entity, with a humanoid torso and upper half, while the lower half was made of tentacles, each ending in some object used during medical operations. The nurse also had a plague doctor's mask covering her face.

Giggles had some sort of clown made out of balloons and balls, with several mouths spread across its bodies, some smiling, some frowning, all laughing with a demonic voice.

And finally, both their birthmarks had changed: Rather than a skull and a flower with a spades symbol, they now had a shattered heart split in half, with the spades nowhere to be seen.

"It's too late, they've been corrupted!" Polly exclaimed as she stood up and looked at her friends. "They're no longer the Love of Romance and Love of Friendship! They're..."

Polly looked at Haiku, who giggled like a mad woman while the nurse entity sharped one of her tentacle-tools: A knife.

"The Lust for Affection..."

Then she turned to Giggles, who clenched her fists and gritted her teeth.

"And the Lust for Revenge!"

Giggles then raised her arms and yelled "Luan" at the top of her lungs, with her clown companion roaring with its dozens of mouths in response. They both then got in the "Cannonball" position and started bouncing towards Luan's location, leaving craters and destroyed building on their way. And when the teams tried to run after her, Haiku blocked their path with her entity's tentacle-tools.

"Come on, girl, this isn't the time to be a pain in our butts!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed as she and Clyde glared at the girl, with Clyde looking particularly furious at her. "We're already dealing with a lot of nonsense, we don't need you to add yourself to the-!"

Suddenly, Clyde activated the Savinoken and screamed as he flew towards Haiku, leaving behind a confused Ronnie Anne. His screams only stopped when his fist and Haiku's elbow clashed.

And then, their looks met: Haiku's being filled with excitement, while Clyde's was filled with fury.

 ** _Finally, back with the Battle with Proto-Lucy..._**

The prototype shook her head and laughed as Luan helped Lucy stood up.

"Well, look at that, Ariel, you hit me with all the anger you could gather, and in the end it failed to put a scratch on me," the prototype shrugged and smiled. "Then again, I wasn't expecting much: The fires that fueled your anger were the fires of a depressed second-rate writer. That barely will leave a sting."

"Then what about the fire of a sore loser!?"

Proto-Lucy raised an eyebrow, and next thing she knew, the prototype was hit by a fireball that sent her flying off a dozen feet, and left one of her cheeks charred.

Soon after, the one responsible for the fireball revealed themselves to be Lynn, who jumped out of the shadows and landed right next to the goth and comedian.

"Sorry that I took so long to show up!" Lynn told the duo. "It's a little hard to shoot fireballs when my hands are a little messed up, hehe!"

Luan and Lucy, however, were not in the mood for jokes.

"What the heck happened to you, Lynn?!" Lucy exclaimed as she ran to her sister's side, and looked at her hands. "Why do your hands look like they touched the sun itself?!"

"Well, I guess you could say they kinda did touch it," Lynn somberly answered. "My counterpart grabbed my hands and used her fire abilities to burn them. Now, it's kinda hard for me to shoot fireballs from them."

"What about your other techniques?" Luan asked with a concerned tone.

"Firebreathing leaves my throat sore, I haven't mastered super speed yet, and the bersoreker form has never really helped me all that much," the jock confessed, taking a deep breath as she added, "Honestly, there's not much else I can do."

"So, you've been reduced to the levels of the people you considered inferior?"

The team turned around and saw Proto-Lucy grab and tear off her charred skin, revealing a bony spot where her cheek used to be.

"You know, I'll admit, I expected you to shove your nose up my business, Camael," Proto-Lucy answered, seemingly unaffected by the tear. "Considering I got Lynn to work with me, it was only a matter of time before her daughter decided to join the party."

The prototype sighed with melancholy. "But, the fact another pest joins the crowd only further aggravates me."

The team narrowed their eyes in exasperation.

"If I can be honest, once everything was said and done, I was hoping that I could meet my brother one-on-one," Proto-Lucy remarked with a forlorn tone as she touched the cheek she still had intact. "It's not fair that Lola and Lana get to meet him first. After all, out of all of us, I was the one he liked the most. But oh well, I can't go against Lori and Leni's plans."

Proto-Lucy looked elsewhere and scratched the side of her head. "At least, not without them killing me for it."

"Even if he was here, the Lincoln you're looking for isn't here!" Lynn stated. "Our Lincoln is not your Lincoln!"

"My oh my, you certainly earned

And almost as if on cue, Lincoln appeared nearby the team's spot, his index and middle fingers still on his forehead.

"Huh, the city square?" Lincoln remarked as he took a look around and lowered his fingers. "That's weird, I thought this was going to send me to Clyde's location. After all, it's supposed to take me wherever I'm most needed."

"Lincoln!" the trio exclaimed, slightly concerned, yet slightly relieved too.

The boy turned to the girls and waved his hand. "Hi girls, what's up?"

And then he noticed how they looked. "Wait, what happened to you?!"

"Well, look who we have here..."

The boy turned around again and saw Proto-Lucy, with a pair of giant shadowy arms emerging from her back as she said, with a malicious smirk:

"Nice to see you again, brother..."

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Hello... the name is Haiku..."

Lincoln looked at Proto-Lucy as the girl with giant shadowy arms looked like she was about to lunge at him.

"I feel... Relieved..."

Then, the scene cut to show Penelope talking with someone on the phone, before the other end showed Carlota blocking an axe from the Purple Champion.

"Like the weight on my shoulders... Was gone..."

Carlota and Claire were shown exchanging thumbs up, before the scene cut back to Penelope, who was approached by Lindsey and Chandler on the latter's cloud.

"But now... But now..."

Lindsey whined about something, and then she and the boy left, before it showed Lindsey jumping off the cloud and using

"I need a new pain... I need a new feeling... I need a new..."

Then, a cut showed Haiku being punched in the face by Clyde, only to slowly turn back as the narration said, with a sly tone:

"Punishment!"

Suddenly, Haiku appeared calm as she said something which enraged Clyde, causing him to snap at her.

"So, Clyde... Everyone... Torture me to your leisure!"

Haiku covered both herself and the boy in a shield made of black energy, and then the scene cut to show Lori arguing with her inner head.

"Make me feel the shame! The guilt! The regret of killing your lovechild!"

And then the scene changed to show the Lovechild team and biker trio arriving at the organization, with Lupa and Lacy engaging in a fight with Flip's machine.

"Give it to me! _Just give it to me_! _Just **fucking** give it to me_!"

Haiku's narration devolved into demented cackle as several scenes were shown in quick succession: Lupa and Lacy with glowing eyes, Carol and Paige glaring defiantly at Renee, a stylized version of Lincoln grabbing himself by his hand and slowly tearing himself in two, and finally Proto-Lucy looking like she was having a meltdown.

The cackling continued until a voice similar to Lincoln's took over the narration, which was kinda necessary at that point as the scene changed to show the stylized Lincoln fully splitting in two, with both halves turning into Lincolns.

"Next time on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Luan was shown facing off against the corrupted Giggles, until she surrounded the city with a yellow hue, with almost everybody being frozen by the act.

" _Lincoln's Patience Wears Thin! The Lovechildren Attack?! The Night Dome Falls, the Sunlight Returns!_ "

Proto-Luna was seen looking shocked as Proto-Luan summoned a building and threw it at her, while Luna's eyes were shown turning purple with star-shaped pupils as she prepared to swing her sword down.

"Don't miss it!"

The last scene showed Lincoln turning around to see Sincoln standing nearby, sporting his usual smug grin.


	39. The Sunlight Returns

**Again, posting this on a Saturday just in case I can't do it this Sunday.**

 **Okay, good news is that the arc's complete, all that's left is to upload it.**

 **Bad news is that the laptop I used to write with has been returned, so I have to either check my small phone for the reviews to reply to them while on the big phone, a highly improbable scenario, so keep that in mind from now on.**

 **On lukewarm news, I don't know what show to write a story about later this or next year: Amphibia or The Owl House.**

 **Huh, the latter sounds like good crossover material with The Loud House. XD**

 **Anyway, what do you guys think?**

 **And now, let's answer some reviews!:**

 **1) Nobody245:**

 *** Hey, there had to be a way to differentiate them somehow.**

 *** Or maybe it was a certain little group known as Lincolnism...**

 **2) Observant Guest: I'm happy you enjoyed the Stella-Ronnie Anne one-shot. I also had the idea of making them the main characters of a multi-chapter fanfic, though that needs you to know about "Lux-Umbra Magna Auguratricis."**

 *** I'm glad to hear that. :)**

 *** Even better: I myself didn't even notice that fact XD**

 *** I see, so you remember that from the old version right? I remember drawing a fusion of Carol and Lana a long time ago, probably predating the reboot, so that's also a possibility, especially considering their currenr bond.**

 *** Yes, you will. Maybe not for long, though.**

 *** I forgot Leni had a friend named Jackie, honestly. But wait, maybe that Jackie and this Jackie are the same person?!**

 *** Yeah, tough stuff was revealed here.**

 *** Now you can judge the intensity for yourself. :)**

 **3) ChernoMan:**

 *** Proto-Lucy: You fool! No Non-Loud can kill me!**

 *** No, that's just a hobby.**

 *** Yay! I'm sure her terrible track record against The progenitors won't work against her!**

 *** Again, she spent her childhood with her.**

 *** Historical counterparts.**

 *** You know, the writer of The Divine Comedy?**

 *** She knows something...**

 *** And here comes the next chaprer?! :D**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 39: Lincoln's Patience Wears Thin! The Lovechildren Attack?! The Night Dome Falls, the Sunlight Returns!**

* * *

Back where we left off, Lincoln took a step back as he witnessed the sight that was Proto-Lucy with a pair of giant shadowy arms emerging from her back, looking ready to lunge and kill the boy.

Or maybe have some fun with him... then kill him.

Honestly, Lincoln couldn't see an outcome where Proto-Lucy wouldn't murder him afterwards.

"Alright, Junior, looks like you arrived just in time."

Lincoln turned around and, what a surprise, Sincoln was nearby, arms folded behind his back and his smug grin still plastered across his stupid face.

"You got here just before "Lucy" murdered the true heirs," the impure version of Lincoln stated. "Now, show her the power of a true progenitor: Reduce her to the husk she wears as a coat!"

Luan and Lynn took a step forward. "Lincoln, who's your lookalike with the orange eyes?"

"He's Sincoln, apparently the embodiment of my evil side or whatever..." Lincoln answered before he turned back to his counterpart. "And what do you mean, "show her the power of a true progenitor?" You caused all of this, _you_ deal with her!"

"Hmph, being a little bossy towards your father, aren't we?" Sincoln chuckled. "But, you bring me amusement when most things just bring me boredom, so I'll let this slide."

Lincoln rolled his eyes and turned back to Proto-Lucy. "Listen, other Lucy, there has to be another way we can work this out! We don't need to fight each other!"

The boy glanced at Sincoln, then pointed at him. "And if you insist on fighting someone, fight your real brother over there!"

"Real brother?" Proto-Lucy asked as she slightly lowered her shadow arms. "Are you saying that illusion over there... is my real brother?"

"Yes, that's what I've tried to tell you and your sisters for the longest time!" Lincoln exclaimed, raising his arms. "I'm not the one you're looking for, the other me with the orange eyes is!"

The prototype glanced at the two Lincolns, and frowned as she managed to sense a distinctive aura emanating from Sincoln... however, she quickly shrugged this off and tried to slam both Lincolns with her shadowy arms, with the Lincolns jumping away as she hissed:

"Cut the silly games, Lincoln! Just because you can clone yourself doesn't mean you can pin the blame on the clone!"

"Wait, I can clone myself?" Lincoln asked himself, only for an incoming punch to return him to reality. "W-Wait, he's not a clone! At least, not in a general sense! He's-"

Proto-Lucy launched another attack at the Lincolns, which prompted Lucy to jump in front of them and block the attacks with her own giant arms made of light.

"Lincoln, forget about talking with her, she's not going to listen!" the goth girl exclaimed. "No matter what we tell them, the progenitors believe you're the one they're looking for!"

That last part caught Lincoln's attention, so he turned to Sincoln. "So ,she really can't tell you're her brother?"

"I already told you, the "sisters" you're dealing with are nothing more than carcasses," Sincoln answered. "The "Lucy" you're seeing here is basically an impostor wearing her skin."

Then Sincoln turned and pointed at Lucy. "I mean seriously, your inbred daughter look more like my sister than that living corpse does!"

Lucy shot a glare at Sincoln and hissed, "Don't make me hit you next, Sincoln!"

Seeing the chance, Proto-Lucy overpowered the girl and sent her flying back to Luan, who caught her and gently put her one the ground. And as Lincoln started dodging Proto-Lucy's attacks, the trio watched him evade the attacks with concerned looks.

"Dang it, there has to be something else we can do!" Lucy complained. "We can't just stand here and do nothing!"

Just then, Lynn looked at the artificial moon, and said:

"I have an idea, one I think is so crazy that it's bound to work. But I need to break out of here in order to take it beyond step one."

Luan raised an eyebrow. "And what do you want us to do?"

Lynn chuckled and crouched down, seemingly getting ready to run. "Just make sure Proto-Lucy's still in the vicinity when I return."

Lucy's eyes widened. "Where are you going?"

Lynn looked up at the artificial night that still covered all of Royal Woods, which made her smile with confidence and say:

"Let's just say, I'm fired up just thinking about it!"

With that said, Lynn ran away, leaving a red trail of fire behind her. And just as the comedian and the goth exchanged concerned looks, they heard something, or perhaps... someone, bouncing around the place and approaching their location.

"W-What's going on?!" Lincoln asked as the bouncing vibrations put a stop on her and Proto-Lucy's fight. "Why does it feel like a giant's stomping the ground?!"

"Whatever it is, it can't be natural," Proto-Lucy growled. "Damn it, did Luan get carried away in one of her shows again?! Or maybe... did Lisa unleash one of her experiments here?!"

Lincoln's eyes widened. "Proto-Lisa?"

And then a large shadow loomed over the pair, who jumped out of the way before the thing responsible for the quakes appeared.

And it was none other than the corrupted Giggles, who looked at Luan and roared at her as the comedian recognized the beast:

"Is that... Giggles?!"

"Wait, if that's supposed to be _your_ friend," Lucy said as the corrupted clown girl bounced towards them. "Then what happened to the rest of the girls?!"

 ** _Meanwhile, with Penelope..._**

The girl stood on a rooftop and stared at the distance with folded arms and a stern look. She was watching the corrupted Haiku's familiar swing her scythe repeatedly at the group of people attacking her, with the familiar ignoring the projectiles being thrown at her direction.

"Whatever the heck is going on over there, I'm going to need some help with that thing," the redhead said as she took out her phone and dialed a number.

And after a couple seconds, somebody answered: Carlota. "Hello?"

"Hello, Pink Champion?" the redhead greeted, only to pause. "Oh no, wait, you don't like formalities, right?"

"No, the Red Champion's the one who doesn't like formalities," Carlota answered. "Anyway, what the hell do you want?"

"Geez, no need to be so rude: Listen, there's a giant monster attacking the city, and I was wondering if you could help me get to it?" the redhead explained. "You know, since I can't fly or jump really high like you."

"Oh, Penelope, in any other situation, I would agree to help you," the teenager sighed. "But you see..."

On Carlota's side, the girl clashed her back-hand's crystal sword against the purple champion's energy axe-guitar as she finished:

"I got my hands full at the moment!"

Eventually, the purple champion was sent flying when the yellow champion crashed on her, and sent them both flying into a wall. Carlota then turned around and saw the one who threw the yellow champion, Claire, giving her a thumbs up before she dodged Silas' incoming attack.

Carlota returned the thumbs up, then quickly reacted when Margo started throwing punches and kicks at her direction. "So anyway, I won't be able to assist you, sorry girl."

With that said, Carlota and Penelope hung up, just in time for Lindsey and Chandler to arrive on the former's cloud.

"Hi, Penelope, I was looking for you," Chandler said while Lindsey played with her yo-yo with an upset look. "And before you ask, I found Lindsey out on the streets fighting and almost being overrun by zombies, so I snatched her away from the scene."

"I could've dealt with those zombies if I managed to wind up my yo-yo a little bit more," Lindsey quietly whined. "But if I don't keep making it spin, it just stops like nothing!"

"Well, I'm glad you got out of that sticky situation," Penelope answered, then pointed at the distance. "There's a giant monster up in the distance and I want to see if I can provide whoever's facing it some support."

"Oh really? There's a giant monster up in the skies right now?" Chandler asked, raising an eyebrow as he turned to see the creature. "I didn't see it on the way here."

" _I can't tell if he's being sarcastic or if he's being genuine,_ " Penelope thought with an exasperated look. "Anyhow, I tried to get one of my contacts to help me get up to it, but she's busy at the moment."

And then Penelope slyly smiled and asked, "Hey, Chandler, would you mind if I-"

"No, I don't mind, but let me put Lindsey on a safe place first," the boy replied.

"What?!" the girl whined. "Why?!"

"You nearly got overrun by zombies, and you seriously see the need to ask why?" Chandler replied. "Wait here for a moment, Penelope."

The redhead nodded and Chandler promptly made the cloud fly off towards the mansion, right back to square one for Lindsey.

"Wait a minute, you're going to leave me back at the mansion?" the redheaded diva asked, with the boy paying her no attention. "Chandler, I left the mansion when it was overrun, remember?! Just because it doesn't look overrun now doesn't mean it won't be overrun again, you can't just leave me there-!"

"Relax, Lindsey, I checked in a while ago and the newswoman and Becky are there," Chandler answered, focusing solely on the mansion. "And besides, I'm sure your father's there too, so you won't be alone."

"But this was supposed to be my time to shine!" Lindsey crossed her arms and frowned. "This was supposed to be the time I would show everybody what I learned in the other dimension, and prove that I could take care of myself!"

The boy shrugged. "I guess you'll just have to wait for another chance."

If Lindsey's ensuing frown was any indication, she refused to take that option. So she swung her yo-yo up to a lamppost and launched herself out of the cloud and then grabbed another lamppost with her yo-yo, a process she repeated as she launched herself away from Chandler.

"What the..." the boy glanced at the lamppost, then back at the girl and asked, "When did she learn how to do that?!"

Wasting no time, Chandler gave chase to the fleeing Lindsey, who continued going from lamppost to lamppost, thinking:

" _I'm not going to stay at the sidelines and watch everybody risk their life for the city! I'm going to do something as well, whether Daddy or Chandler want it or not!_ "

 ** _Fight with Corrupted Haiku..._**

The corrupted "Lust for Affection" cackled as her familiar threw their weapons at the team, all while the girl herself just took all of a Savinoken-empowered Clyde's fists to the face like a champ.

And then, upon receiving a kick to the face, she gathered enough strength to turn back to Clyde and exclaim:

"Yes, hit me more! Make me suffer like I deserve!"

Hearing that, Clyde backed away and caught his breath, thinking while the girl kept cackling:

" _Damn it, she's not getting hurt, rather, she's enjoying the pain! How am I supposed to defeat her if all my attacks only bring her pleasure!?_ "

And then she suddenly stopped laughing. "Why did you stop?"

The boy flinched and flew back a little more as he noticed the girl's mood change from mad excitement to sad disillusionment.

"It was getting so good, and then you stopped all of a sudden," Haiku spoke with a somber tone. "It's no fun when somebody suddenly stops the thing that brings you enjoyment

" _Okay, this is the Haiku I'm more familiar with, but it's still rather unnerving that she was so excited a second ago,_ " Clyde thought, making sure to keep his distance from Haiku.

"Still, what's the matter?" the girl tilted her head. "Weren't you angry that I killed your daughter? Didn't you want to break me like Lincoln broke me?"

Clyde's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"

"Lincoln drove me mad long before your infidelity did, darling," Haiku tilted her head again. "Or do you really think my jealousy would be enough to turn me into this monstrosity?"

Clyde immediately threw a kick right at Haiku's face, which he maintained as he hissed:

"Take back what you just implied _right now_!"

Haiku, however, deadpanly answered:

"Very well, if you won't believe me, then I won't _tell_ you the truth."

The girl slowly turned back to Clyde, her eye glowing orange as she added:

"I'll _show_ you the truth."

A black energy was expelled from Haiku's back, then morphed into a shield that covered both herself and the boy, kicking him out of the savinoken state in the process.

However, as soon as he regained consciousness and opened his eyes, Clyde didn't find himself in a pitch black darkness of despair. Instead, he found himself in a room with blank platforms, by which it meant the platforms were literally one color, non-descriptively.

And in the "middle" of the room was Haiku, sitting on what looked like a blank couch, giving the boy a better look at her form:

Her hair had white tints at the tips, her skin was a little tanner, and her clothes' colors changed from purples and blacks to oranges and a very dark shade of blue.

Is this how she looked like corrupted?

"Take a seat, sweetie," Haiku said as the boy walked up to her. "There's a lot for you to take in."

The boy obliged and sat down, and in that very same instance, the whole room changed, with several monitors suddenly popping into existence, each showing a memory of Haiku as the big monitor buffed up.

And as soon as it finished loading, the truth began with a scream...

 ** _Meanwhile, with the fight against Proto-Luna..._**

The prototype priest generated an energy axe out of the same energy Luna used, but with some dark energy thrown into the mix, which she swung at Luna while the rocker used the flaming pearl sword to block it.

Once she blocked for a couple times, Luna narrowed her eyes, backed away a little, then pushed forward and swung her sword, causing Proto-Luna to release the axe and send it flying away. However, when the rockstar swung her sword again, her prototype blocked it with her hands and struggled to keep it there, ending in a intense stare between the rockstars.

And as the fight continued, Lori and Rita stood at the sidelines, watching the fight when a familiar voice whined to Lori:

" _Why aren't you fighting? I'm bored watching you watch at the sidelines._ "

"Of all the times you could pop up and be a pain in my ass, this one is literally the worst," Lori growled at the voice. "Luna's fighting her counterpart, and I can't find an opening to interrupt-"

" _Nonsense, you just want this "Luna" to do this on her own, don't you?_ " the voice interrupted. "That's basically the only reason you haven't taken care of."

"Well, that, and all she needs to do is power up slightly in order to literally kick my butt to kingdom come!" Lori answered. "Although, now that I mention it, for some reason she hasn't thought of transforming yet."

" _Tell me, would the night dome still be around if she had transformed?_ "

The statement did briefly make the older Loud sister consider about it, but her attention was caught when a new challenger entered the battlefield:

It was Lynn, who continued to run until she manage to run up a building nearby.

"Is that Lynn?!" Lori exclaimed in disbelief. "What the heck is she doing here?!"

Lynn continued running until she went past the building and was practically running in the air. She didn't even try to stop as she got closer and closer to the dome, she instead held her fist forward, expecting to break the dome with a punch...

The punch didn't make a scratch. In fact, the jock's intense crash on the dome didn't do anything other than hurt herself, and catch everybody else's attention: The Lunas looked at her in disbelief, Rita gasped and covered her mouth, and Lori shook her head and rubbed her forehead as she snickered:

"Classic Lynn."

The jock promptly fell down afterwards on to the top of the building, making the same sound a plush toy did once she hit it. And as she dusted herself, the fight with the Lunas continued as if nothing happened, and Rita and Lori went up to the jock's side.

"Lynn, are you okay?!" Rita worriedly asked as she ran up to Lynn and put her hands on her shoulders. "I know you're used to falling from heights, but nothing to this extreme!"

"It's okay, everything else I've suffered today has hurt me more than this," Lynn replied. "And besides, I did need to do that in order to confirm my theory."

Lori raised an eyebrow. "And that is?"

The jock crossed her arms and frowned. "It'll take more than a willpower punch to get rid of the eternal night dome."

Lori lowered her eyelids. "I don't think that's something you needed to confirm. But regardless, what are you doing here? Weren't you literally helping Clyde deal with the zombies?"

"Some things happened and we had to split, and then some more things happened and we split up again, and then even more stuff happened and I'm here now!" Lynn explained to the best of her ability. "Basically, there's a lot of stuff that's happening right now, and despite my super speed, it seems I can't keep up with any of it!"

"Ha! If your Dad was here, he'd be laughing at the joke," Rita remarked. "But, back on topic, what exactly were you planning to do?"

"Well, let's just say it's something that's pretty dang crazy," the jock smiled with confidence. "However, I'm pretty sure my plan's level of craziness is so big, that there's a chance that it'll totally succeed!"

"Right, because the crazier the plan, the higher the chance it'll work," Lori remarked as she folded her arms and rolled her eyes with a bemused smile. "If that's the case, then it might be better if you don't tell us your plan at all: I heard that plans that never get spoken or explained have a higher chance to work than other plans."

"I didn't think about that at all!" Lynn smiled. "Thanks for the tip, Lori!"

"I was literally being sarcastic!" the older Loud sister snapped. "Whatever plan you have, just tell us what it is quickly: Luna might need help soon!"

The jock nodded and explained her plan to her "mother" and her sister, all while the fight between Luna and Proto-Luna continued in a stalemate. One that involved both Lunas swinging their weapons at each other, making audible sounds as they clashed repeatedly.

" _Damn it, this isn't getting me anywhere!_ " Luna thought as she and Proto-Luna engaged in a power struggle once again. " _I need to find a way to overpower her so I can find a way to get rid of this dome!_ "

And then Proto-Luna chuckled, which caught the rocker's attention. "What's so funny?!"

"I'm surprised you haven't overpowered me yet, Dumah," Proto-Luna answered before she and the rocker looked at the artificial moon. "After all, artificial or not, we're fighting at night, and yet neither of us seem to be getting power."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Wait, are you saying that I would grow stronger at night?"

"No, I'm saying that, real or not, the moon itself should be empowering you," Proto-Luna answered. "But, I guess it won't do that unless you accept who you really are."

The prototype smirked. "Isn't that right, Lulu?"

Luna flinched and lost focus, which allowed the prototype to overpower her and send her crashing through the building, and then crash on the ground as the building started snapping in half.

Seeing this, Lori immediately flew back, moved her palm forward and released light blue strings from her fingertips, which she used to hold and put the building back together as Proto-Luna watched her... and did nothing other than look at her with a smug smile and stern look.

The oldest Loud sister simply ignored her and summoned more strings from her free hand, which she used to grab Luna and put her on Rita and Lynn's side just as the rocker dusted herself.

"Ugh, that bloody name again!" Luna growled as she stood up. "I don't know how my counterpart found it, but I should've thought about it turning up at some point!"

"What name?" Rita asked.

The rockstar hesitated for a moment, but then took a deep breath and closed her eyes:

"Lulu."

Lori gasped and briefly lost concentration, causing her to loosen her grip on the building for a second before she recovered, and held the building in place as Proto-Luna said:

"You should let it fall, Harut. After all, it's not like Dumah or the others are in real danger. If they really are the Gods of this world, the true successors to us progenitors, then something like a building falling on them shouldn't be able to kill them, right?"

"That's an interesting proposition."

The duo turned around, and saw Proto-Luan flying nearby, with her arm extended upwards as she said:

"But I honestly think being near-danger and surviving is better for character _building_!"

The top half of a skyscraper materialized above Proto-Luan, which the girl held with strings coming out of her hands before she swung it like a club, and hit both Proto-Luna and the core of the night dome with it, slightly cracking it.

"Luan, what the hell are you doing!?" Proto-Luna snapped as she recovered from the hit. "Shouldn't you be keeping the rest of the Four Loves busy?!"

" _The Sadie Hawkins dates?!_ " Lori thought before she threw a surprised look at the prototype comedian. " _So they've been with her this entire time?!_ "

"I was doing just that when a goddamn moon crashed my tent!" Proto-Luan snapped in return. "And if I remember correctly, you're the only one of us with the bad habit of throwing moons all over the place, right?"

Proto-Luna, remembering her raging lunacy earlier, narrowed her eyes and stated, "I shot some moons, yes, but I threw them at the city, not your damn tent!"

Proto-Luan narrowed her eyes. "It's too late to ask for forgiveness."

"Forgiveness? I'm not asking for something I don't even want!" Proto-Luna stated. "Just go back to your damn tent and stop meddling in my business, like we all agreed to!"

"We broke that damn rule as soon as we decided to join Lynn and Lucy in their nonsense!" Proto-Luan snapped. "And I'm not going to let you abuse of this broken rule so you can be the only one to come out on top!"

And so, a fight between the prototype rocker and prototype joker began, with Lori at least taking a sight of relief at the fact the duo would be too busy fighting each other to notice Rita and Lynn, the latter who had just finished explaining the plan to Luna.

"Lynn, what are you thinking?!" Luna asked, narrowing her eyes. "There's no way you're going to survive heading to the sun!"

"It's not about me surviving the journey to the sun, Luna! It's about me trying to get an upper hand against the progenitors one last time, and I can't do that without you!" Lynn replied. "Just get rid of the night dome or whatever it is, so I can head there! I mean, you have to do that anyway, don't you?!"

The rocker flinched and scratched her chin as she looked around the place. "I-I mean, I do need to get rid of this dome, it would help everybody... but now that I know what you're planning to do, I just... I don't know... do you really have no other plans?!"

"Desperate situations require desperate measures, Luna," the jock answered as she shook her head once. "And right now, I'm... no, _we're_ facing our most desperate situation so far!"

Gathering all of her willpower, Lynn gave the rocker a thumbs up with one of her charred hands as she stated, with a wide smile and a single tear shed:

"So, let's face it together!"

Luna, seeing the resolve in her sister's eyes, smiled and nodded before the duo turned to look at the night dome's core with determined looks. They then crouched down, and jumped off the building, with Rita cheering for them as Lynn spread her fire wings and Luna grabbed her legs.

"By the way, I don't think I ever gave much attention to those fire wings," Luna said as the duo flew towards the core. "When did you learn how to do that?"

"Let's just say, I got the idea from a special little kid," Lynn answered, remembering Lacy for a moment before she narrowed her eyes. "Anyway, get ready!"

Luna nodded, and once the duo were close enough to the core, Lynn threw Luna up, spat fire at her blade, and as she fell, Luna held her sword high, ready to give the hopefully finishing strike to the core.

And once she was close to the thing, she reeled back and, with her eyes turning purple with star-shaped pupils for a brief second, she swung her sword and vertically cut the core in half, with the dome itself cracking apart in the same manner mere seconds afterwards.

The return of the sun filled with city with sunshine, getting practically everybody's attention, especially that of an irritated Proto-Luna, who glared at the duo before Proto-Luan caught her attention once again.

"Alright, now all that's left is for me to head to the sun!" Lynn stated as she flew to the falling rockstar.

"But how are you going to do that?" Luna asked with a shrug. "Even if you could fly to the sun, it would take you forever to come and return!"

Somehow hearing that, Lori narrowed her eyes, freed one of the strings holding the building and used it to grab some rubble, and throw it at Luna just hard enough to immediately cause her intense pain, enough to make her let out a scream.

And scream she did; She let out a titanic screech, almost to the same intensity as the one she did before, and the force of the scream caused Lynn to fly so fast towards the sun, that she became a twinkle in the sky as the rockstar hit the ground, and turned to see what made her scream in the first place.

It was a tiny, sharp piece of debris that was stuck in her skin.

"Oh come on, that's all I got?!" the rocker complained as she reached for the debris as Rita landed next to her. "I thought something bigger or more lethal had hit me instead!"

However, as soon as she tried to pull it, the pain Luna felt made her stop and cover her mouth. She then waited for a couple seconds, and with a tear falling down her cheek, she asked:

"Why does this hurt so much?!"

"Here, let me take care of this," Rita said as she prepared to take off the debris. "Now, look at the bright side, sweetie; the sun's back, and once Lynn returns, the tides of the battle will surely turn."

Hearing that, Luna turned to look at the vibrant sun, and with a smile, she said:

"Yeah, hopefully."

 ** _Meanwhile, back at the organization..._**

Leia and Lizy sat on their cell, looking at the ceiling and the single window on the walls, while Flip looked at them through a glass window ocassionally, while also checking on Pacowski's monitors for any sign of incoming invaders.

And then a mechanical voice spoke, "What are you doing, Flip?"

The old man turned around and saw the one who said that was none other than the monitor, who came out of the ceiling and looked at the man as they added, "Shouldn't you be ready to face any invaders from the outside?"

"Bah, you worry over nothing, monitor," Flip answered as he turned back to face the screens. "And besides, with both Pacowski and the skinny janitor gone, there's nobody else in the organization that can watch the monitors."

The monitor turned around, and saw the other agents in the building: Mr. Grouse acting as Greg's replacement, Myrtle carrying a tray with cups filled with coffee, the librarian organizing some stuff, Old Scoots heading straight for the correctional facility near the organization, and so on and so forth.

Sure, there were less agents available than usual, but Flip was certainly not the only one that could check the monitors.

"And also, don't worry about the lovechildren suddenly getting anxious in their cells," Flip remarked, getting the monitor's attention. "I already sent the best man possible to calm them down."

The monitor tilted itself, implying confusion.

And back at the lovechild twins' cell, the person Flip was talking about entered the cell and caught the twins' attention.

This person turned out to be none other than Albert, the Loud siblings' maternal grandfather.

"Well, hello there, it's nice to meet you," Pop Pop greeted with a friendly tone. "You're the lovechildren known as Leia and Lizy Loud, right?"

"...Yes, and who are you supposed to be?" Leia asked sternly as she took a closer look at the man. "And why do you look like an elderly, gross version of Dad?"

"Well, the reason for that is a bit interesting, sweetheart," Pop Pop said as he sat next to Leia, who immediately jumped to Lizy's side. "I'm Albert, or as my grandchildren-and in Lincoln and Lola's case your parents-know me as, Pop Pop."

Lizy quickly put two and two together. "Wait, if you're Mom and Dad's grandfather, that would make you-"

"Your great grandfather? Yes," Pop Pop chuckled. "Your maternal great grandfather, to be exact!"

"Then that would mean..." Lizy counted her fingers, then widened her eyes. "You're Grandma's Dad!"

"Yup! And I've been sent here in order to keep you company and also cheer you up!" Pop Pop scratched the back of his head. "You see, I live in a retirement house, and the controlling nurse there sometimes makes it feel like a prison, so I can understand your situation a little bit."

The old man sighed and spread his arms wide. "But that's besides the point! Now how about you come give your Great Pop Pop a hug!"

"Hmph, nice try, old man!" Leia scoffed as she crossed her arms and flashed a smug smile. "But we know better than anybody that our families are different from the ones in this dimension, right, Lizy?"

The mentioned twin immediately jumped off her seat and landed on Pop Pop's lap, where she started whining and acting like a dog whose owner had returned after leaving for... like, what, 3 minutes?

"Pop Pop!" Lizy repeatedly chirped as she moved around.

"Lizy, stop that!" Leia exclaimed. "That's not your Pop Pop, he's an alternate counterpart of him!"

"Hey, just because I'm not like the real deal doesn't mean I can't love you the same way he did," Pop Pop answered, oblivious to Leia's anger as he extended his hand towards her. "So come on, give me a chance, okay?"

The girls slapped his hand away and exclaimed, "Pop Pop doesn't love me! He didn't love any of us! To him, to Grandma, to everybody but our parents, we were seen as mistakes! As abominations that shouldn't have existed in the first place!"

The old man, quickly putting together how the girl felt, took a deep breath and asked:

"But, Leia, that was in your home dimension. This isn't that dimension. So, even if your Pop Pop didn't love you, what makes you think I would be the same?"

"Because every counterpart is the same! All Lolas are egotistical, all Lincolns are perverts, and so on and so forth!" Leia snapped. "So, every Pop Pop, every Grandma, every single of their counterparts are meant to hate us!"

The old man lowered his head with a concerned look, and this sight made Leia frown and lean back, almost as if she worried she hurt the old man's feelings.

And then the ground shook, from none other than the spadesship, where Liberty, Lupa, Lacy, and the biker trio jumped out.

"Alright you three, the mission here is to find Leia and Lizy, and break them out of here," Liberty stated, earning a nod from the team. "Just find the twins and get them out of here, only use brute force if necessary."

"Understood," Lupa stated as Liberty went back into the spadesship. "Everybody, let's go!"

"Yay!" the biker trio chirped. "What do we do?!"

Lacy and Lupa exchanged looks, and whispered to each other for a moment before the jock lovechild told the trio:

"Keep an eye out for strangers, and don't engage in any fights until there's no other choice, got it? May Progenitor Lisa's omniscient eye be with you."

The girls nodded and cheerfully strolled off deeper into the building, with the lovechildren exchanging concerned looks before they went off to look for Leia and Lizy.

And naturally, it wasn't long before they came across Flip and his giant mecha, who got in their way as soon as they got close to the door.

"Going somewhere, lovechildren?" Flip remarked with a smug tone. "Haha! Did you really think you could go into the organization and get your sisters out, just like that?! Not in a million years!"

"Ugh, great, as if we didn't deal with enough douchebags on average," Lacy groaned in exasperation. "Step out of the way if you know what's good for you, old man!"

"Yeah, no, I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be my line," Flip aimed his mecha's cannons at the girls. "How about _you_ take your sorry asses back to the spacecraft you came from and scram!? The Lola and Lana lovechildren are staying here with us!"

Lupa and Lacy exchanged looks, then threw a confident glare at the man as they said in unicons:

"Not if we have something to say about that!"

And so the duo leaped straight for Flip, which prompted him to swing his mecha's arm at them, successfully hitting them and sending them flying into a wall. However, the old man barely had time to enjoy his successful attack before the jock-goth lovechild duo jumped from the wall and on to the top of Flip's machine.

With that done, Lupa created a drill with her soul energy and got ready to pierce the cockpit, only for Flip to grab the duo with his mecha's hands and then slam them on the ground repeatedly, before he spun them around and threw them at another wall, laughing as they hit it.

"You know, for being children born from the supposed absolute god of this universe, you're quite pathetic when it comes to fighting!" Flip boasted with a chuckle. "You're gonna have to try harder if you want to live up to your old man's legacy!"

With those words spoken, the shadowy figures of the duo appeared as they chuckled a little, confusing the man in the mecha. But then, Lupa said:

"Truth be told, we're not really living up to his or our real fathers legacies anyway."

Flip raised an eyebrow. "Wait, so you're not the daughters of this world's Lincoln?"

"No, but he's kinda like the versions we know," Lupa answered. "For example, my Dad's a pacificst: If possible, he'll always try to talk things out, or deal with the situations he faces without fighting."

"And _my_ version of Dad was a total pansy: Mom was the one in total control in their relationship," Lacy added with a melancholic tone. "In fact, she had to trick him into creating me because he lacked the will to take the initiative."

"Heh, that almost makes me feel pity for you," Flip answered, before he aimed his mecha's buster at the duo and said, "Almost!"

The machine shot an energy blast at the lovechild duo, who flashed orange glowing eyes before they headed straight for it, grabbed it with their hands, and then launched it right back at the robot, with Flip barely recognizing what happened before he was caught in an explosion.

And with that done, Lupa and Lacy shared a fist bump and ran deeper into the building in search for the lovechild twins, just before the smoke cloud dissipated to see Flip's mecha still worked somewhat.

"Ugh, those damn brats," the old man growled. "Once I see them again, I'll-"

And then his mecha's sensors went off, and opened a screen to show the biker trio somehow at the correctional facility.

"Well, if I can't deal with those pesky lovechildren, at least I can deal with their teammates," Flip said, only to grow concerned as he added, "That is, if the inmates don't get to them first."

And so, the old man piloted his mecha towards the correctional facility, where the gate to it was protected by a lone cop: Officer Schoffner, who didn't seem that thrilled about her position.

"You're the best in the department, they said. This is the job for you, they said," Schoffner growled, rolling her eyes. "If they wanted to shove me on the post nobody wanted, they could've just said so!"

"Excuse us, Miss!"

The officer turned around and saw the scared Biker Trio approaching her, at least until she blew her whistle and aimed her palm right in front of them, bringing them to a stop.

"Sorry, girls, but visitor hours aren't until-" Schoffner said, only to take a closer look at the girls. "Wait a minute, I've never seen you before. Is this your first time coming here?"

"We're sorry to intrude here, miss, but we didn't mean to get here!" Ronnie cried, with Cindy and Mindy nodding in agreement. "We were looking for the friends of our friends, and one way or another, we got lost!"

"We don't even know where we are!" Cindy added.

"Okay, alright, calm down you three," Schoffner said as she crouched down and wiped the girls' tears as they slowly calmed down. "Listen, I'm not allowed to leave the gate for long, but I think I can spare one or two minutes to guide you to your friends, and also take you back to somewhere safe."

The officer smiled and pulled her hat down. "So, where are your friends?"

The trio thought about it, then exchanged looks once they got an idea.

"Actually, there might be the chance our friends are here," Ronnie said as Cindy and Mindy looked elsewhere. "Is that a problem?"

The officer's eyes widened, and she looked around, wondering what she should do now.

 ** _As that happened, in the Sanctuary of the Damned..._**

Carol and Paige continued to stand defiantly against Renee, who glared at them with a pair of glowing purple eyes.

"So, what's the plan?" Carol asked.

"Beat up Renee, destroy the teleportation circle, and get the lovechildren back to their safe spots," Paige answered before throwing a raised eyebrow at the teenager. "Think you can deal with the last one?"

Carol smiled. "Only if you can deal with the first two."

"Fools, you're meddling with the resurgence of the gashadokuro! The resurgence of one of the primordial beasts itself!" Renee snapped, her aura growing more intense. "Would you go so far as to disrupt the summoning of a holy beast, just to save an entire kind that's been condemned, just by existing!?"

"Quit the theatrics and melodrama, Renee!" Paige stated with a stern tone. "All you're doing is helping a psychopath summon a giant monster through killing a bunch of innocent people, nothing more, nothing less!"

"Hmph, those are fighting words worthy of a former believer who's lost her faith!" Renee folded her arms and shook her head. "And to think, you could've been such a great Lincolnist, if only you had gone along and proven your love for the lord and savior."

"And helping one of the progenitors destroy everything is supposed to prove your love for him?!" Carol exclaimed, stomping the ground. "We're putting a stop to this right here, right now!"

Renee narrowed her eyes and snapped her fingers, summoning several cloaked lincolnists to defend the circle where the lovechildren were being killed, and teleported to the pile.

Among these lincolnists were Winston, who looked around the place confused. "Huh? W-What's going on? Where am I?"

"Silence, newcomer!" Renee snapped before she pointed at Carol and Paige, who were dealing with the barrage of hooded lincolnists. "Now go and protect the circle like you're meant to!"

"What?! The only reason I joined here was to find a way to get Lindsey back!" Winston snapped at the girl. "I wasn't told I would have to risk my life for it!"

Renee growled and snapped her fingers, causing one of the lincolnists to raise their hand, with Winston levitating up as he was surrounded by a green aura. The lincolnist then threw him at Carol and Paige's way, right towards one of Carol's lighting blades, to be exact.

However, Paige extended her hand and used her own telekinesis to stop the boy mere inches away from the blade. And then she placed him nearby as she growled:

"Using your own "faithmates" to try and get rid of us? That's disgusting, even someone as messed up as Cristina would never do that!"

"Don't you dare compare me to someone as high and mighty as Sister Cristina!" Renee snapped, clenching her fists. "Even if she wouldn't do something like that, she would approve of anything that would help the lord and savior in the end!"

"Why don't you ask her, then?"

Everybody flinched and turned to see the cloaked figure Paige summoned once entering the room. She then stopped, and pulled down her hood, revealing her true identity:

It was Stella, whose eyes sported heart-shaped pupils as she growled:

"I can send you right to where she is, if you want."

 ** _Meanwhile, back with the Proto-Lucy fight..._**

Both Lincoln and Proto-Lucy caught their breath as Sincoln took a couple steps forward and clapped slowly, almost sarcastically.

"Excellent little warmup, Junior," Sincoln said. "But I'm afraid it's time for both of you to stop playing around."

"What are you talking about?" Proto-Lucy asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Stay out of this, Sincoln!" Lincoln snapped, earning a half-hearted eye roll from his counterpart. "You've already done enough damage to everyone!"

"Hey, if you're going to beat her to the ground and skewer her insides until she admits you're the boss, she might as well learn what happened to the Lincoln she cares about so much," Sincoln answered before he turned to Proto-Lucy. "Prototype Lincoln."

The prototype raised an eyebrow, and Sincoln thusly explained:

 ** _Sincoln's explanation..._**

 _"Back when the original reality existed, there was a set of gods among the protophilim, and among them was Prototype Lincoln..."_

 _The image of Proto-Lincoln appeared, sitting alone in his room._

 _"His role in the cosmology of the original reality, was to help bring new children to the world, and nothing else. No fighting, no decorating, no development, nothing else. He was basically a "special" type of slave, one that shouldn't have cared about the state of the universe."_

 _Then, Proto-Lincoln stood up, and the scenery changed to show everything darken._

 _"However, he did, and he sensed a corruption that would soon overtake the world. And so, against the universe's wishes, he took action."_

 _The scenery changed again, and Proto-Lincoln was shown aiming his palm in front of some protophilim: A Maggie, a Sam, and a... Darcy?_

 _"First, he "cursed" the protophilim with mortality, so their slavery to the corruption wouldn't be eternal."_

 _The image changed, and now Proto-Lincoln stood in a room that looked like it would belong to Proto-Lily..._

 _"Then, he went to Prototype Lily's room, and, in his own words, "Allowed her to survive the apocalypse" through him."_

 _Another change, and now Proto-Lincoln stood alongside the Neo-Sisters, with black eyes and soulless expressions._

 _"Finally, he gave birth to a new generation of divine daughters, who would help him rebuild the world."_

 _Then the image zoomed out, showing a massive army lead by the Proto-Sisters, ready to face him and the Neo-Sisters._

 _"And waged a war to destroy everything he had created, so it wouldn't be lost to the corruption."_

 _One quick change, and the boy was now in the middle of a grassland, clutching his chest in pain._

 _"Alas, as he made the new world, the corruption started to affect him too, and he was left with no choice."_

 _Proto-Lincoln grabbed his chest with both hands, and slowly tore himself in two._

 _"He split himself in two halves."_

 _Lincoln formed from the right half._

 _"One representing his purity..."_

 _And then Sincoln formed from the left half._

 _"And one representing his corruption."_

 _And then, both Lincoln and Sincoln faded into darkness..._

 _"And that, was the end of Proto-Lincoln."_

 ** _Back in the Present..._**

Proto-Lucy shivered, her soul scythe glitching as she tried to keep it together, and Sincoln placed his arms behind his head and smirked with satisfaction.

"How do you know that's true?" Lincoln asked, narrowing his eyes.

"How come you didn't find out sooner?" Sincoln asked in return. "I mean, you've been having visions of the past, right? I figured you'd learn the truth sooner or later."

"N-No, that can't have been the reason!" the prototype goth snapped, her soul scythe growing more erratic. "He cursed them with mortality for some unknowable reason! He couldn't have taken them from their immortal selves just to save them!"

"Everything he ever did was to try and save the universe, even when he himself was being corrupted," Sincoln bluntly stated. "If you spared even a second to think about it, what he did was for the best of everyone."

"No, he, didn't! He just thought about himself without thinking about the consequences, like he always did!" Proto-Lucy hissed, shedding a few tears. "And besides, he isn't dead! He's right beside you, and you're nothing but an illusion!"

Proto-Lucy stomped the ground. "Lincoln lives!"

Sincoln chuckled. "The Lincoln that loved and cared for you... at least, the person who used to inhabit that body..."

Then flashed a smirk.

"Is gone for good!"

Proto-Lucy's eyes started crying tears of blood as she yelled:

"Liar!"

Then ran to and swung her soul scythe at Sincoln. The boy was unaffected, sadly enough, but a string did come out of him, a fact Proto-Lucy either did or didn't notice as she continued swinging her scythe at him, shouting "Liar!" repeatedly as more and more strings came out of him.

And then Luan, while fighting the corrupted Giggles, looked at the scene and exclaimed:

"Stop!"

Almost as if on cue, a yellow aura emerged from Luan and covered the whole city in it, with most things gaining a yellow hue as they stopped right in place, including the corrupted Giggles.

However, for some reason, certain people seemed to be able to move just fine: Lucy, Lincoln, Sincoln, and Proto-Lucy for example, with the latter two continuing the "hack Sincoln repeatedly to no avail" bit.

And elsewhere, Maggie and Sam could also move, the latter grabbing Maggie's shoulder.

"What? Luan stopped time?" Maggie asked in disbelief. "But, I didn't think she knew how to do that!"

"Who cares if she knew or not?!" Sam snapped. "Use this to your advantage, and get ready to launch "that" attack!"

Maggie's eyes widened.

"No, I can't use that move, Sam! Not right now! I just went through something traumatic, Sam, I can't go through something like that again!"

"Maggie, listen to me: Do you see that giant monstrosity in the sky?" Sam asked as she pointed at the corrupted Haiku. "That thing's going to hurt, or even worse _kill_ , everybody present here if we do nothing about it! Polly, the brothers, Ronnie Anne, Tabby-"

The last one immediately got a reaction from the goth, who listened as her sister told her:

"Even if it doesn't kill it, even if it doesn't hurt it that much, you can't just sit there and watch it hurt everyone we know and love! So come on, just this once..."

Sam grabbed Maggie's hand and held it tightly as she asked:

"Unleash the Edgy Sphere of Despair!"

"Ow the edge!" was heard in the distance, but this didn't detract from Maggie and Sam's intense stare fight.

And as the time suddenly returned to normal, Maggie nodded and said: I'll do it.

 ** _Meanwhile, back inside Corrupted Haiku's Realm..._**

The corrupted girl took another sip of her tea as Clyde looked horrified as the room turned back to its blank state.

The boy then lowered his head and frowned. "I can't believe what I saw really happened."

"It's always difficult to believe in our best friends when we see "But, before you snap, let me ask you, do you remember what was the greatest teaching you ever said?"

Clyde raised an eyebrow. "My greatest teaching?"

And then, a vision happened, and Clyde saw through his counterpart's eyes as he told, to a large gathering of orange hooded figures:

"A friend will notice something's wrong with their friend, and try not to disturb them. A best friend will notice something's wrong with their friend, and try their hardest to help them get through it, and become a better person."

The vision ended right then and there, leaving the boy both confused and intrigued as Haiku then said:

"If you want to uphold your own teachings, you must accept the fact Lincoln is capable of such malice."

Clyde looked back to the girl with shock, but before he could say anything, the whole place shook and tilted to the side, causing Clyde to fall as he came out of the dark spot, and fell right on Penelope's arms.

"Hi sweetheart," the redhead said as the boy looked at her with confusion.

"Nerd-O!" Ronnie Anne shouted as she "I'm glad you're okay!"

"Ronnie Anne? Penelope?" Clyde asked, still confused. "W-What happened?"

"Well, I followed Lindsey Sweetwater over here, and I figured you could use some help," Penelope explained.

Hearing that, the boy turned around and saw not only Lindsey wrapping the giant familiar with her yo-yo, but Maggie, flying in the sky, with a giant sphere of energy above her. And to both these sights, Clyde only had one thing to say:

"What the heck is that?!"

 ** _Back with the Proto-Lucy fight..._**

The prototype goth caught her breath while Sincoln, still undamaged, shook his head and shrugged.

"Well, that was completely worthless," the illusion spoke. "But look at the bright side, I decided to take pity on you."

Proto-Lucy raised an eyebrow, and everybody turned to see the spot of the gashadokuro as several bodies started materializing and piling up, with the Lucies staring in shock while Lincoln glared at Sincoln.

"What did you do, Sincoln!?" the boy snapped.

"Well, I didn't lie, if that's what's upsetting you: Nothing she ever did could ever hope to kill me," Sincoln answered as he folded his arms. "However, every time the impostor swung her scythe at me, those strings being cut?"

And then he dropped the bombshell:

"Those were the life strings of other people."

Lincoln's eyes widened and Lucy gasped in sheer disbelief: All those strings that flew by just a moment ago... they belonged to other people. And now they were dead.

Or even worse, being used as fuel for the gashadokuro's rise.

"So, you mean to tell me..." Lincoln clenched his fists. "Instead of just taking the scythe... which wouldn't have hurt you regardless..."

A bright orange aura enveloped around the boy as he snapped:

"You made other people die in your place!?"

Lincoln's aura released an intense light, forcing both Lucy and Proto-Lucy to cover their eyes as Sincoln chuckled and gave his explanation:

"Oh please, stop feigning empathy for inferior beings such as these: You're a divine being. _We're_ a divine being. We're far above everything and anything that has existed, currently exists, or will ever exist. There's nothing in all of existence that can compare to us, not even the true heirs."

Lincoln's eyes glew orange as Sincoln continued:

"We're unique. Eternal. Invincible. But you'll only ever get to enjoy those traits of yours, once you stop thinking and acting like a mortal, and assume your role... no, your destiny, as the one above everything!"

Lincoln's aura unleashed an intense shock wave as he leaped straight for Sincoln and charged a punch, to Sincoln's amusement:

"Oh please, Junior, you already know that will never-"

Surprisingly, once Lincoln actually threw the punch, not only did it connect, but Sincoln was hit so hard, that he was sent flying off into the pile of bodies, which blew up and made the corpses fly up, then rain out of the sky as Lincoln took on a familiar pose: The same one he took when he almost, but chickened out at the last second.

A pose that Proto-Lucy recognized quite clearly. " _So this..._ "

The prototype actually sweat and took a step back as Lincoln dusted himself and got ready to jump.

" _This is the power he almost unleashed on us back then..._ "

Sincoln stood back up, his shock from the fact something actually hit him taking him a couple seconds to pass, before Lincoln lunged at him and uppercutted him, sending him straight into the skies, where he gave chase.

And as soon as the pair clashed, their energy was felt all across the city, especially by Leni.

"No, this can't be true, my senses must be playing a joke on me!" Leni exclaimed in disbelief. "Lincoln can't have awakened yet! It's, like, too early for that!"

And then a voice spoke:

" _Calm down. Leave panicking for when things no longer go according to my plan. For now, take him and Sincoln somewhere else, so they don't bother the other sisters._ "

"But..." Leni looked at the orange light show that was Lincoln and Sincoln's sky fight. "Keeping two of the top gods in the same place... won't that-"

" _Be tough? Not if you're a person who can control the boundary of illusions, which you do. Now go do it, before I make you do it._ "

Realizing what she needed to do, Leni placed her index and middle finger on her forehead and used Omnipresence to head to the Lincolns' location.

 ** _Finally, Right Back at the City Square..._**

Proto-Lucy caught her breath as she turned to look as the corpses of the people she unknowingly killed materialized above the pile and added to it, causing it to slowly take a shape similar to a skeleton. And then she turned back to see Lucy glaring at her, gritting her teeth and clenching her fists.

"It's all Lincoln's fault!" Proto-Lucy proclaimed. "It's like I just revealed to you: He cursed the protophilim, and the neophilim, with the disease known as mortality! If they had remained in their original, immortal forms, needless deaths could've been avoided!"

"And you think creating more deaths is going to fix the problem?!" Lucy snapped, stomping the ground. "I mean, don't you need dead people to create the gashadokuro?!"

"The only reason the gashadokuro was even created was to pierce the heavens and take back all the protophilim who were unfairly murdered!" Proto-Lucy argued, then raised her scythe as the beast continued to take shape. "A plan that will soon come to fruition!"

The ground shook once again, and behind Proto-Lucy, the gashadokuro took on a giant blob-like state before it morphed into a giant skeleton, with the eyes of Xucy lighting up and glowing red as the creature lenched its fists and let out a giant roar that was heard all across the city.

Especially at Liam's family farm, where Silas and the other champions looked at the giant beast with horror.

"So, that is the gashadokuro?" Purple Champion asked as she crossed her arms. "I got to admit, it looks just like what I expected."

"Well, another primordial beast has been summoned," Carlota stated as she clenched her fists. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to go deal with it!"

Carlota spread her arms and created icicles that stunned the masked champions-and Margo-in place as she and Claire ran after the giant beast, the latter shouting "Wait for me!" as she followed her.

"Damn it, those traitors are escaping!" Margo growled. "Silas, do something!"

However, the boy was too focused on the giant beast to hear the demand.

" _Mother Lucy, what the hell have you done!?_ " the boy reached for his pocket and took out the spade-shaped object. " _I was hoping I could save this for when her successor was about to win, but now I have no other choice!_ "

The boy closed his fist, and jumped away to use the object elsewhere, leaving the other champions to watch him leave as the ice keeping them imprisoned soon melted by Margo's aura.

"Well, I guess that marks him as a traitor now," Yellow Champion remarked. "Shall we go after him?"

"No, he's not our problem, not now anyway," Margo crossed her arms. "We should go back and see how our matriarchs are doing."

The masked champions nodded and left, with Margo looking at the newly-fred sun before she ran towards Proto-Lynn's location with super speed, leaving a trail of fire behind.

And now, the gashadokuro would be on everybody's mind...

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Hi everybody, Lucy here!"

Proto-Lucy walked towards the giant skeletal beast as she said something.

"The Gashadokuro has finally arrived!"

The prototype then pointed at the skies, and the Gashadokuro threw its arm at them and "grabbed" it, creating an opening to the afterlife in the process.

"Now the very afterlife itself is at stake!"

Lucy blew a whistle, and a familiar train came out of the sky and crashed with the Gashadokuro, making it let go of the plane of existence, before showing Proto-Lucy being run over by the train as well.

"Lincoln isn't here, so now it's up to me to put an end to this!"

As she said that, Proto-Lynn was showing talking to Clyde, who seemed rather hesitant to hear what she had to say.

"Proto-Me! I'm not letting you screw with the afterlife any longer!"

Several scenes were then shown in quick succession: Silas desperately talking to Xucy, Margo opening her eyes to reveal they were blue, Stella dodging Renee's attacks, and the twins and Pop Pop meeting with Lacy and Lupa.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Lisa and Clyde flew up to the Gashadokuro, and through some odd powers or something, a portal was opened and Clyde entered the beast through it, causing him to land in a black void.

" _Battle of Death Gods! The Gashadokuro Finally Rises! Wait, Proto-Lucy Has a Final Trump Card?!_ "

Maggie, Sam, Ronnie Anne, Polly, Tabby, and Rocky saw the Gashadokuro roaring in pain and took advantage of this and attacked.

"Don't miss it!"

The final scene showed Lynn falling down, now surrounded in a fiery aura, before it cut to Proto-Lucy as she fell apart, before flashing a confident smirk.


	40. Gashadokuro Rises

**So, yesterday, the three main reviewers of this story all came together and reviewed chapter 39. And what better way to celebrate such a happy coincidence, than by making this weekend a double feature?**

 **Also, after this there are like three or four chapters left, so better as well, I think?**

 **Anyway, first, let's answer some reviews:**

 **1) Nobody245: Yeah, Proto-Lucy's gonna lose whatever shred of sanity she has left pretty soon.**

 *** You realize Sincoln is still inside Lincoln, right?**

 **2) ChernoMan:**

 *** Yeah, I'm sure she's gonna listen to an "inferior" lifeform.**

 *** That's not much of a good thing...**

 *** Curse you, inexperience!**

 *** You can thank Sincoln for that.**

 *** No, Proto-Leni keeps her in check.**

 *** Fun fact: In this world, one of Luan's counterparts is DIO.**

 *** Here's another chapter for ya :D**

 **3) Observant Guest:**

 *** I never said it would be a side-story, the idea is more like a spin-off or sequel. And wait, you heard about that story?**

 *** How hard has that been?**

 *** Jackieception!**

 *** Yeah, and when has a half-corrupted fusion ever been useful anyway?**

 *** You Say Run is a theme I love to listen to when I have the chance. I'll try to hear the other music eventually.**

 *** Nobody fear, Pop Pop is here!**

 *** Yup, time for some "stellar" action. XD**

 *** Now you'll get to see it in action, however briefly.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 40: Battle of Death Gods! The Gashadokuro Finally Rises! Wait, Proto-Lucy has a Final Trump Card?!**

* * *

Back where we left off, the gashadokuro roared once again as Proto-Lucy walked towards it with a proud look.

"Finally, after so many years, this little baby can at last do what it was meant to do!" Proto-Lucy chirped as she dematerialized her soul scythe. "Now go, Gashadokuro: Crash the heavens, and bring down the afterlife!"

The skeletal beast looked at the sky, and without any hesitation, it reeled back its fist and then threw it, with the arm growing longer and longer until the punch actually broke through the sky, and into the afterlife, where the spirits of the deceased panicked as the beast gripped the floor of the dimension.

And from the normal world? The Gashadokuro's arms was so long, it was the size of _three skyscrapers_ at the bare minimum.

"Good job, Gashadokuro!" Proto-Lucy chirped as she started climbing the skeletal beast's body. "Now, off to welcome the deceased back to the real world!"

Lucy's shock at the sight quickly wore off, and realizing she was more or less alone since Luan was busy with Giggles, and Lynn and Lincoln were nowhere to be seen, she tried to think of an idea...

And then, she reached for her back, and took out the skeleton whistle Leni gave her.

The whistle that would summon the Afterlife Express.

So Lucy grabbed the whistle, took a deep breath, and blew it as hard as she could, which caused a hole to break near the one the beast made as the express came out of it.

And, with an intense speed, the train crashed on the gashadokuro, causing it to lose its grip and release the hole in the sky, allowing it to seemingly fix itself just as the beast tried to reach for it.

"Damn it, not that stupid train again!" Proto-Lucy growled as she landed on the Gashadokuro's ribs. "I knew I should've done something about that old-timey Lucy back then!"

And then Lucy jumped onto the same rib Proto-Lucy was on, catching the prototype off-guard.

"Your meddling with the afterlife has gone long enough, Proto-Me!" Lucy proclaimed as she walked to her counterpart. "I'm not going to let you ruin the natural order of things any further!"

"Natural order? What are you talking about?" Proto-Lucy scoffed. "Do you really think all the protophilim that Lincoln killed died natural deaths? Do you really believe it's natural to be a victim of genocide?!"

"Once something dies, it's supposed to stay dead!" Lucy stated with a stern tone.

"How curious," Proto-Lucy smirked. "Lincoln said the same thing when I tried to build the Gashadokuro the first time. All in order to bring the dead back to life."

"And don't you think that the dead might not want to be revived?" Lucy argued. "That they don't want to return to a world where they died painfully, and that they'd rather be in eternal rest, where they're safe?"

"Bah, and what makes you think you understand the dead?!" Proto-Lucy snapped. "You were dead for barely a week! Meanwhile, I've been dead for millions, if not billions of years! If there's anybody here with the right to judge and decide what's best for the dead, that's me!"

Proto-Lucy got ready to lunge at Lucy. "And I'm not letting an unworthy brat like you get in my way!"

The prototype lunged at her counterpart, but Lucy simply blew the whistle again and caused the afterlife train to run over Proto-Lucy, sending her flying up to the Gashadokuro's shoulder.

And just as Proto-Lucy stood back up, Lucy jumped to her and tried to push her off with her giant light arms, only for Proto-Lucy to summon giant dark energy arms and struggled back.

The beast turned to look at the struggling pair, but a missile to the face immediately caught his attention and made him turn around to see a peculiar group heading to face them.

These were the teachers, as well as Becky and Catherine. And in particular, Mrs. Shrinivas had her arm extended forward, with steam coming out of her palm as she glared at the beast.

The beast didn't hesitate, and it roared again as it got ready to face the team.

 ** _Meanwhile, with Silas..._**

The boy stood on top of a tree, where he watched the Gashadokuro attacking the square as the artifact he held glew repeatedly.

" _Come on, Xucy, answer already!_ " Silas thought as he glanced at the artifact. " _I need you to come help us!_ "

And then Xucy's voice was heard from the other end. " _What do you want?_ "

"Mother Lucy changed the deal on her own accord!" Silas told Xucy through the artifact. "She took your eyes and put them on the Gashadokuro! I need you to come here and help fight it-!"

" _And why should we come help you clean your mistress' mess?_ " Xucy answered in return. " _I can see through my eyes regardless of where they are, and from what I'm seeing, there's little need for me or any of my subordinate to get involved. It seems that an entire party of people are fighting against the beast as we speak._ "

"Yes, that's true, but there's no guarantee that they'll be enough to take it down!" Silas answered. "And besides, anything could happen while Mother Lucy fights her counterpart, so even if the Gashadokuro is defeated-"

" _Let me get this straight: You're scared out of your damn mind because your mistress decided to change up the deal, something you should've seen coming if you know how devil-like figures work, and now you want me to get involved and defeat it for you?_ " Xucy guessed. " _You don't need help with the monster, you need help learning how these damn things work._ "

Silas narrowed his eyes. "But-!"

" _Call me again when you actually need my help,_ " Xucy replied. " _Or even better, don't bother: I'll be watching through the monster's eyes, and if things get out of control, we'll go help. Until then, good day, kid._ "

The artifact stopped glowing, and Silas threw it on the ground and crushed it with his foot, just in time for Margo to arrive and ask:

"Sounds like you didn't have any luck convincing "Bloody Lucy" to come help you out."

"Oh, shut up, Margo!" Silas snapped at the girl. "Do you even understand what this means?! The Gashadokuro has risen! The afterlife itself is in danger! And if I'm not mistaken, Mother Lucy is about to screw up every plan we could've planned, just to get to the afterlife!"

"Yeah, see, I've met your progenitor and heard the stories about her," Margo said as she folded her arms. "And from what I've heard, I think she's a little bit too bonkers to properly be reasoned with."

Silas took a deep breath and stood up. "Well then, if there's no option for me left, then there's only one thing I can do."

Margo raised an eyebrow. "Give up?"

Silas threw an "are you serious?" look at Margo, then spread a pair of wings made of darkness and flew away. And then shortly after

" _Give up? Is that really something you should be saying in this desperate situation?_ "

The girl's eyes widened and she turned around to look for the source of the question, though she failed to see anybody of importance.

"Whoever it is, get out of your hiding spot!" Margo snapped. "I'm not in a good mood, so if you got something to say, you better say it in person!"

" _Wow... such anger and fury..._ "

Suddenly, a yellow-colored square materialized out of nowhere as the voice chuckled:

" _I guess you're Gusion's champion for a reason, dahahaha!_ "

"Wait, that laughter..." Margo's eyes widened. "It can't be... you can't be-"

" _Who I am shouldn't be the thing that worries you right now,_ " the yellow square telepathically said. " _You should be more worried about your friends, family, and so on!_ "

Instantly seeing through the square's sympathy, Margo looked elsewhere and growled:

"What friends? What family? I lost everything thanks to Lynn! The people I could consider my friends and my family are no longer by my side!"

Margo paused, frowned and lowered her head.

"And the people I have here don't see me as a real friend: They just see me as a teammate or as something else, but not as a friend or-"

" _Tsk, tsk, tsk, such negative thinking will get you nowhere in life. It'll make everybody believe you're an unapproachable jerk who thinks she's better than everybody else._ "

Margo scoffed. "Isn't me being the champion of one of the progenitors going to give off the same vibe?"

The yellow square remained silent, and slowly approached the girl as it said:

" _That doesn't have to be the case. You know you could be better than this, that they're not the real deal, but you continue to work under one of the. Why?_ "

"They're seemingly omnipotent, impossibly ancient monsters who could easily destroy everything and everyone," Margo sternly answered. "If I get on their bad sides, they'll kill me!"

" _Not with my power, they won't,_ " the square revealed, which caught Margo's attention. " _Would you like to give it a shot?_ "

Margo lowered her head, then closed her eyes and nodded.

" _I'm glad we could come to an agreement! Are you ready, Margo?!_ "

Margo opened her eyes, revealing they were a sea-blue level as she exclaimed, with a higher-pitched voice:

"I'm ready!"

 ** _Meanwhile, at the Sanctuary of the Damned..._**

Stella dodged all of Renee's incoming attacks, while Carol and Paige quickly dealt withthe minor lincolnists that tried to stop them from ruining their plans.

"Damn it, Stella, you're the great Cristina's own champion!" Renee snapped at the girl with a stern tone. "Why would you try to meddle with the other progenitors' affairs?!"

Stella chuckled. "Don't you think I'm here because Cristina explicitly asked me to put an end to this? That your little "offering" to your goddess outright offends Cristina?"

"That's a good point," Paige remarked. "Cristina always had some kind of issue with the other progenitors' way of running things, it wouldn't take long before she sent someone to fix things."

"None of you are fixing anything! You're just ruining a perfectly acceptable offering to the gods!" Renee exclaimed as she was surrounded in a dark aura. "Such blasphemy should never be allowed, regardless of a god's orders!"

And with that, Stella scoffed "And yet you're allowed to do these things?" as she charged an arrow and shot it at Renee, before following it by snapping her fingers, causing several dozen arrows to materialize and hitting the girl, successfully sticking her in a wall in the process.

It didn't take long before Renee came out of the arrows, however, and formed a scythe before she charged at Stella, who nonchalantly dodged the attacks as she gestured Paige and Carol to get rid of the teleporter thing.

Noticing the gesture, Carol and Paige exchanged nods and promptly worked together: Carol opened a pair of portals for Paige to go through, gaining more and more speed with each jump. Once she gathered enough speed, Carol closed one of the portals just as Paige flew up high in the sky.

And as she descended rapidly towards the ground, Paige spun around, and screamed as she aimed her hammer high, then slammed it down once she got close enough to the teleporter, causing it to fizzle for a moment before it exploded, sending her flying into Carol's arms.

With no more teleporter, and now having three overpowered girls to deal with, the lincolnists promptly screamed and began to run away.

"No! What have you done!?" Renee snapped as she tried to free herself from the arrows, only to then turn her attention to the fleeing lincolnists. "And you cowards, why are you running away!? You promised to defend the goddesses' pride with your life!"

With the teleporter done with, and most of the lincolnists too scared to fight back, Paige and Carol reunited with Stella, the last two exchanging stern, serious looks with each other.

"Stella, what brought you here, exactly?" Paige asked with a stern tone. "Knowing your master, and going by what you said, it can't have been simple good will."

"Let's just say, Cristina has been watching Lincolnism for a while now," Stella answered with a stern tone. "And she's quite displeased with what she's seen."

"I'm not surprised," Carol sighed. "I mean, child labor, worshipping a false idol, forcing their beliefs upon others, this entire "religion" is nothing more than a collection of things that would piss off Lincoln."

"Y-You lie!"

The team turned around and saw Renee finally free herself from the arrows and get down, heavily bruised but still able to pull off a fight. "T-This whole religion... this w-whole faith... i-it's what the lord and savior wanted... it's what the lord and savior needs! Progenitor Luna said so her-"

Before the girl could finish, Stella aimed her bow at her and shot an arrow right at her forehead, instantly killing her and causing her to drop... well, dead.

"Stella, what the hell!?" Carol exclaimed with shock. "That was completely unecessary!"

"Oh please, you were responsible for over a dozen deaths back when you were the "Love Slayer," Carol Pingrey," Stella replied as she threw a stern look at the teenager. "Certainly, a casualty from the religion that put you through so much crap should mean nothing to you, right?"

And as Carol gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, Paige frowned and asked, "Stella, what happened to you?"

"You tell me, Paige," Stella glared at Paige. "After all, it's your fault that I'm like this."

And with that, Stella teleported out of the room, just in time for Carol to get a telepathic message from Lori:

" _Carol, we literally need you right now!_ "

"Why? What happened?" Carol asked.

" _Sincoln finally shattered Lincoln's patience! Now he, like, won't stop until he literally annihilates his counterpart!_ " Leni explained, also through telepathy. " _Lori and I are currently in another dimension, trying to keep them from leaving, but it's really hard!_ "

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Carol stated before she returned to reality. "I'm sorry, Paige, but I have to go."

"It's alright, considering how messed up everything is right now, I'm sure everybody's needed everywhere at this moment," Paige answered. "I'll stay here and clean the mess, good luck with whatever you have to do."

Carol nodded, put her middle and index finger on her forehead, and used Omnipresence to leave the room.

And as soon as she left, Paige pouted, "I wanna learn how to use that too!"

 ** _Meanwhile, in Leni's Dimension..._**

Carol appeared in the dimension right next to Leni, who was crouching on the ground taking heavy breaths with Lori by her side.

"It's a good thing you arrived, Carol," Lori remarked as the cross-casted girl was shocked by what she saw. "As you can see..."

Lori looked around as well, and saw several cracks across the dimension, some looking so wide and fragile that they could collapse any second now."

"Keeping Lincoln inside here has been literally hell."

"They stopped fighting a moment ago," Leni said as she slowly stood up. "B-But, like, they could resume... any minute now-"

The girl almost fell, but Carol and Lori grabbed her and helped her stay up.

" _So, this is Leni at her absolute limit?_ " Carol thought as she saw the fashionista take several deep breaths. " _I don't know how Lincoln and his counterpart have been fighting, but the fact Leni hasn't completely given in yet is impressive._ "

And then Lincoln shouted something that got everybody's attention:

"Sincoln!"

The titanic shout shook the entire dimension, and everybody in it, with Sincoln taking a step back as Lincoln walked towards him, his aura growing in size and enveloping in an orange tint.

"J-Junior, calm down! You're overreacting to all of this!" Sincoln said, trying to maintain a tough exterior as he added, "L-Listen, use your Omnivision to see the people that wound up dead from the strikes that Lucy copycat gave me! Trust me, no matter how many you see, none of them will be important people!"

"What the hell is he thinking?!" Carol exclaimed with worry. "Doesn't he know that angering Lincoln any further could mean the end of our universe?!"

"It's not that he doesn't know, it's that he doesn't _care_!" Lori sternly answered. "Sincoln is literaly the amalagamation of Lincoln's worst traits combined into the most obnoxious package you'll ever find. He's too self-centered and too arrogant to think about the consequences of his actions!"

Carol frowned and looked at the duo with worry as Lincoln narrowed his eyes and asked:

"How do I do that?"

"Just close your eyes, junior," Sincoln answered, clasping his hands. "Do that, then think about the people who died, that should let you see how many insignificant people were taken out!"

Lincoln's eyes sprung up and bared a glare that sent an orange shock wave across the dimension, and sent chills down everyone's spines.

But nevertheless, Lincoln closed his eyes and wondered about the dead people. In doing this, he got to see all the people who died:

Liam and Hattie, some of the organization's members, Zach, Rusty Spokes, and so many more people, each stinging Lincoln's very being as he saw more and more of the innocent casualties...

But the image that caused something to snap within him came next:

The biker trio, their eyes soulless, their bodies alongside Officer Schoffner's dead bodies laying motionless inside the facility when Flip found them.

Upon seeing that, Lincoln slowly opened his eyes, revealing they had purely black sclera with orange, spades-shaped rings for pupils.

He clenched his fists as his fingernails elongated into orange claws.

And from his back came out flitching wings, each shaped like a spades symbol, and colored differently: Pink, Navy Blue, Green, Turquoise, Black, Purple, Red, Yellow, and Lavender.

"W-Wait, you're getting pissed off?!" Sincoln exclaimed. "H-How could that be possible?! Everybody in the universe is below you! Below us! Their deaths should mean nothing to you!"

Lincoln's eyes diluted, and he let out yet a titanic roar that deepened the cracks in the dimension, moments before he lunged at Sincoln, ready to slash him apart.

 ** _Meanwhile, back with Lucy Versus Proto-Lucy..._**

Lucy leaned back and narrowly dodged a scythe swing from her prototype counterpart, getting only a small cut on her cheek in the process. During this act, Lucy tried to fight back by summoning a pair of giant energy hands.

But they came out as dark energy, not light energy, prompting Lucy to deactivate them moments before Proto-Lucy attacked again.

Luckily, Lucy summoned a light energy shield, but it was too late: Her counterpart had already seen the dark hands.

"I see, so you've finally tapped into the darkness inside you?" the prototype remarked. "I was wondering what was it that kept you alive so long into this fight. I guess now I know."

Lucy charged light energy and aimed it in front of her prototype, shouting:

"Hikari!"

The light energy formed inot a ball and exploded, sending Proto-Lucy flying away like a ragdoll while Lucy regained her composure.

"What kept me alive is my determination to stop you from ruining the balance of life and death any longer, it has nothing to do with darkness!" the goth exclaimed as she caught her breath. "And besides, why do you talk as if you knew what it meant?!"

Proto-Lucy chuckled as she got up, also like a ragdoll, and then looked at Lucy and calmly walked towards her as she explained:

"Not all of the descendants control only one element: Some control two or even more than that. In this case, you control both light and darkness. But while the light is powered by positive emotions and stability, darkness is powered by their counterpart: Negative emotions and instability."

Lucy looked at her hand and generated a ball of light energy as her counterpart continued:

"Put it simply, in our current state, light is your strongest and only power."

Then she faced Proto-Lucy and saw her create a ball of dark energy.

"While darkness is my only power, in return."

Lucy scoffed. "As if I needed another reason to think you're a lunatic!"

The goth ran towards her counterpart and got ready to throw another Hikari at her, even shouting as she leaped forward:

"Hika-!"

However, before her attack could connect, before she could even finish calling it out even, Proto-Lucy turned into a shadowy form with red eyes and smile and moved out of the way before she morphed back into her physical form, saying:

"Do you really think that's going to work every time?"

She then launched her dark energy ball at Lucy, only for the goth to throw her Hikari at her in response, causing both balls to clash and explode, sending both goths a couple feet away as the clash resulted in a flowing black-and-white energy sphere floating for a moment, white electricity surging through it as it slowly vanished afterwards.

"What was that?" Lucy asked.

"Isn't it obvious? Light and darkness are two halves of the same thing, a duality," Proto-Lucy answered. "Combine two halves of a duality, and you get their complete, most powerful form. Like if you mix earth and minerals to create phase transition, life and death to obtain control of the cycle of life..."

Proto-Lucy smirked. "Or when you mix reality and fantasy, to gain control over a greater perception of existence as you know it."

Lucy raised an eyebrow. " _Is she talking about Carol?_ "

Proto-Lucy formed a soul scythe yet again and dashed to her counterpart before she swung it, with Lucy forming a shield and struggling against the weapon as the prototype stated:

"In short, unless you use both your darkness and your light, you will never be able to beat me!"

Lucy gritted her teeth, determined to prove her counterpart wrong.

 ** _Meanwhile, with the fight against Haiku..._**

The girl and her familiar tried to break free from Lindsey's yo-yo's grasp, with the redhead having just enough strength to keep her in place while Maggie finished charging the edgy sphere of despair.

Ow, the edge!

"Hey, tall emo!" Lindsey shouted at Maggie. "Is your energy ball ready or what?!"

"It is, but I can't just throw it and expect it to hit!" Maggie answered as she tried to keep the sphere up. "Throw her to the ground!"

Lindsey nodded, and promptly tried to pin Haiku to the ground... only for the girl to refuse to budge, no matter how hard Lindsey pulled. The redhead continued pulling as Haiku and the familiar continued to struggle, with neither party making any progress as everybody else looked from below.

"Ugh, there must be something we can do!" Ronnie Anne said. "Hey, you four, how about-"

But the tomboy got a nasty surprise when she saw Rusty, Liam, and Hattie on the ground, motionless while Rocky went to his brother's body and tried to get him to move.

"What happened?!" the tomboy exclaimed as she, Penelope, and Clyde went to Rocky's side.

"I-I don't know, w-we were watching the fight and-and then, my brother and the two kids close to him dropped to the ground!" Rocky answered, trying to hold back his tears as Ronnie Anne crouched down and put a hand on his shoulder. "Now he won't get back up, or even move!"

"Don't worry, kid," Ronnie Anne said, glancing nervously at the body as she wrapped Rusty in a hug. "I'm sure he's just... sleeping."

Then, a loud screech got everybody's attention, and made them turn around to see Haiku and her familiar finally being pulled to the ground by Lindsey, who promptly fell and landed right on something: That something being Chandler's cloud.

"See? I did it," the girl stated as the boy helped her get up. "I don't need to stay back home and watch as everybody helps."

Chandler sighed. "I hope you have some energy left, then, because unless Lucy's counterpart's beaten, this won't be over soon."

And then, Sam whistled and yelled "Everybody get out of the way!" as Maggie's arms gave in and she threw the giant sphere of energy at Haiku, with it moving slowly enough to give everybody a chance to run, with Chandler grabbing the bodies and taking them with him.

Then, on the ground, Haiku barely got the strength to get on her knees before she witnessed the edgy sphere of despair-ow, the edge!-as it was sent hurling towards her, culminating in it engulfing both the girl and her familiar before it caused a massive explosion that sent everybody flying away.

Luckily, though, most of the team managed to regain their footing shortly after, including Sam grabbing Maggie and helping her get on her board as she said, with a wide smile:

"Nice shot!"

Maggie looked at her older sister with shock, before she smiled and chuckled, "Don't try so hard to be nice, it's unnatural."

"Hey, who's saying I'm forcing my smile?!" the blonde rocker laughed as she rubbed the emo teenager's head. "I'm being completely genuine, you know!"

Once they were down at the ground with everybody else, Polly, Ronnie Anne, and Tabby ran up to the duo, with the last one outright jumping and hugging Maggie as she chirped, "That was amazing!"

"I agree, but I still gotta ask, what the heck was that giant thing you threw at Haiku?" Ronnie Anne asked.

"The edgy sphere of despair," Maggie answered, with someone shouting "ow, the egde!" from afar as she explained, "It's a giant sphere of concentrated negative feelings that, once they make contact with some object, cause an explosion with a large radius."

Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow. "And how did you come up with such a move?"

"Okay, you're about to cross a line there, kid," Sam stated, her smile unfaltering as she narrowed her eyes sternly. "Just accept that Maggie can do something like that, okay?"

"Alright, fine, no need to get angry at me," Ronnie Anne replied, waving her hands. "But was that cool or what, Nerd-O?"

However, when she turned around, she saw the duo were nowhere to be seen.

"Nerd-O? Penelope?"

 ** _Speaking of the Duo..._**

Clyde and Penelope landed at another point in the city, with the city square, and by extension the Gashadokuro, being in full view of the pair, who watched as the teacher trio continued to fight with it.

As for Luan? She was nowhere to be seen.

"That's the Gashadokuro."

Penelope put Clyde on the ground and the duo turned around to see the source of the statement: Proto-Lynn, who folded her arms as she added:

"Lucy's secret weapon to try defy the cycle of life and death itself."

"Prototype Lynn..." Clyde sternly remarked as he stepped in front of Penelope. "Are you the one who took us away before the sphere struck?"

"I will admit that I did spare some of my empathy to save you," the prototype jock stated. "But it's definitely not because of good will or because I took a liking to you."

Proto-Lynn's face contorted in disgust. "Unlike my daughter, my standards aren't below the dirt."

Penelope stepped in front of Clyde and snapped, "What do you want!?"

The prototype calmly narrowed her eyes and asked:

"Remember your reason for becoming one of my subordinates, Penelope?"

Hearing his partner being called that, Clyde turned to the redhead and asked, "You're one of her what?!"

"Clyde, our daughter had died, we could do nothing about it, and I find it very hard that the "gods" in our world would've done something about it either!" Penelope explained. "I just joined her so I could avenge our child!"

The redhead sighed. "And yes, I know she wasn't our real daughter, but does that really mean she had to die?"

Clyde frowned, and Proto-Lynn promptly answered the rhetorical question:

"If it meant being the base for the Gashadokuro, then yes, she really had to die."

This caught the duo's attention, with Penelope looking more shocked than Clyde. "What?!"

"Listen, Penelope, I wanted to keep this a secret from you because I had a feeling this discovery would leave you depressed rather than angry, and the feeling of depression is beyond my power," Proto-Lynn answered. "However, I can sense a glimpse of righteous fury inside of you, so there's no fear for me to reveal this to you..."

 ** _Flashback..._**

 _"Back when the original reality was still a thing, Lucy tried to combat the growing mortality rate of the recently-mortalized protophilim, by creating a giant skeletal monster formed from corpses, which would be known as the Gashadokuro."_

 _The image depicted as she said that and the next showed Proto-Lucy in front of the monster, with Proto-Lincoln coming at the last minute._

 _"However, Lincoln came by and stopped it, sending her quest to reach the afterlife back to square one."_

 _One image change, and Proto-Lucy now stood among the corpses that used to be the Gashadokuro._

 _"The reason being that, by using people he cared about, people he held even the tiniest shred of sympathy towards, Lincoln would never allow her to reach her goal."_

 _Then, Proto-Lucy witnessed a lovechild, Proto-Lupa, in the distance._

 _"She couldn't use his friends, nor his own children, not even the ones he believed to be the most troublesome, for he had sympathy for them."_

 _Proto-Lucy smiled._

 _"However, Lincoln never had any sympathy or empathy towards children born beyond his control. Children born from couples he himself didn't accept."_

 _The image changed, now showing Proto-Lucy watching over the Johnson residence._

 _"So, when word got out that a non-Lincoln-related lovechild existed in the dimension, Lucy did the unthinkable."_

 _A Lincoln walked out of hiding, and shook hands with Proto-Lucy with a smile._

 _"She made a deal with a type of Lincoln: In exchange for letting him use her personal champion, Haiku, however he liked, he would help her get away with creating the Gashadokuro a second time, this time without her brother to meddle with her."_

 _Another change, and this time Proto-Lucy watched from the window as Haiku and Calliope met..._

 _"So, after Haiku had been played with, they sent her to the house to get rid of the lovechild."_

 _A *SPLAT* sound later, and the walls were painted with blood as Proto-Lucy flashed a sadistic smirk._

 _"And so, her corpse became the very foundation of the Gashadokuro."_

 ** _Back in the Present..._**

Penelope sported a murderous look as she processed the information the prototype had revealed to her, a look that didn't falter as Proto-Lynn added:

"For as loving and caring as he made himself out to be, Lincoln could never keep his true colors hidden away forever. Had the lovechild been known before Lucy killed her, she would've been slain by Lincoln's own hand."

Penelope's pupils disappeared and her eyes became a solid red.

"So, you see... she was fated to die."

Not even a second after she said that, a red aura enveloped Penelope and the girl screamed bloody murder before she ran straight towards Proto-Lucy's location, leaving behind a trail of crystallized fire as Clyde looked at her leave with shock.

"You know, I always had a feeling Penelope had some lingering anger inside her," Clyde calmly said, only to glare at Proto-Lynn as he hissed, "But saying such a lie to her just to take that anger out is too far!"

"And how can you be so sure that I'm lying, and not telling the truth?" the prototype jock shrugged and shook her head. "Then again, you were one of Lincoln's most sycophantic servants. To you, his very word was law, and his very presence was perfect, so I'm not surprised that you don't believe me."

Clyde gritted his teeth and clenched his fists as Proto-Lynn added:

"And the saddest part of this is, I still need to ask for your help."

Hearing that, the boy's eyes widened, before he flashed a glare and said:

"You... need my help?"

"Don't worry, I'm not asking for it because I want someone to make Lucy pay for her temper tantrum, although if you should also do that for everybody's sake," Proto-Lynn answered with an even sterner tone. "I'm doing you a favor by giving you a glimpse of what's to come."

Clyde blinked twice and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You know how in horror movies, the black guys-as well as racists, bigots, and other kinds of assholes-are always the first die?" Proto-Lynn pointed out with a stern tone. "Well, I ask you to enter the Gashadokuro's head, and find the very foundation of that monstrosity's existence."

Clyde frowned and clenched his fists. "Calliope..."

"And besides, it will be the perfect opportunity to find out the truth," Proto-Lynn shrugged and faced her back against Clyde. "Find the child you had with Penelope, and once you take her out, the Gashadokuro should collapse and turn back into the bodies composing it. If she doesn't do that..."

The prototype jock slowly turned to Clyde. "Well, I never said there was only one Calliope, did I?"

But as soon as she turned around, Proto-Lynn saw that Clyde was nowhere to be found, a fact with brought a smile to her face.

 ** _Meanwhile, at the Organization..._**

Pop Pop and the lovechild twins came out of the cell shortly after the old man checked their surroundings.

"Okay, it seems that the coast is clear," Pop Pop said before he gestured the girls to follow him. "Come on you two, follow me."

"Why?" Leia asked as she and Lizy followed the man. "Why are you trying to help us escape?"

"Isn't it obvious? The longer you stay in a small cell during the whole invasion, the easier it'll be for the invaders to find you and hurt you," Pop Pop answered as he and the girls sneaked across the organization, walking through any dead bodies they found. "Or even worse, they might help my granddaughter's psychopathic counterpart kill you both!"

Lizy and Leia exchanged frowns as the latter said, "That does sound like something Lupa would do."

"Yeah," Leia narrowed her eyes and looked elsewhere. "If it'd mean she'd get to live another day."

And then, Pop Pop's screames caused the twins' hearts to skip a beat, as the old man ran to the body of Myrtle, and craddled it as he cried:

"No! Not you, Myrtle! Of everybody that could die here, why did it have to be you?!"

The old man hugged the body and cried, prompting the twins to walk to his side and ask:

"Was she important to you?"

"Her name was Myrtle, the first woman who managed to rekindle the fire in my heart after so long," Pop Pop explained. "A woman who brought me happiness, and a sense of fulfillment, after I spent most of my adult and elderly life alone."

The old man hugged the woman tightly. "And now, she's dead."

Lizy took a closer look at the woman. "I don't get it, she seemed like a healthy old lady. Why would she just die all of a sudden?"

Leia folded her arms. "If she dropped to the ground, then it's probably the work of-"

"Mother Lucy?"

The trio turned around and saw Lacy and Lupa entering the room, the latter having her soul scythe in hand as she finished:

"Yes, I'm fairly certain this is her doing."

Pop Pop gently laid Myrtle's body on the ground, stood up, and glared at the duo as he said, "So, I'm guessing you're the invaders?"

"I'm Lupa Loud, daughter of Lincoln Loud and Lucy Loud," Lupa answered before she pointed at Lacy. "This is my sister, Lacy Loud, daughter of Lincoln Loud and Lynn Loud."

"All we're here to do is get our sisters, Leia and Lizy Loud, to come back home with us," Lacy added, cracking her knuckles as she growled, "Hand them over right now, or prepare to face us."

"Potentially to the death," Lupa casually added.

The twins flinched as Pop Pop replied, "I'm just an old man, without any magical power of my own. Would you really threaten me with death? It's not like I have much life left in me."

"Hmph, your senile act was charming for barely a second, old man," Lupa grabbed her scythe with both hands and got ready to strike. "We know how this universe works: Everybody has powers, no exceptions."

Pop Pop smiled and chuckled. "It was worth a shot."

Then, without hesitation, the old man crouched down and put his hands on the ground, causing vines to sprout from the ground and grab the lovechildren duo's arms and legs, with them barely reacting as they were suspended in the air.

"Yeah, we don't have time for this," Lacy rolled her eyes and generated a fiery aura, burning the vines trapping her as she sternly told the twins, "Alright, listen you two, we need to head back to the church, now stop fooling around with this faker and come with us."

The twins exchanged looks, then turned to see Pop Pop apparently exhausted after only using the vines once. Seeing the old man tired like that, the twins took a deep breath, helped the man get up, and ran away with him deeper into the organization, leaving the pair alone.

"Did... did those two really just ignore my oder?" Lacy asked, blinking twice. "I'm pretty sure all the lovechildren know the heriarchy among us, right?"

"It seems the organization has either brainwashed or conditioned them into helping them," Lupa casually remarked as her soul scythe swung on her own, cutting the vines to pieces and releasing her. "Something tells me they won't come with us unless we knock them back into their senses."

"Either that, or we could use chain fusion on them," Lacy shrugged. "There's really no need to beat them up for it."

Lupa looked neutral at Lacy, then gripped her soul scythe and chased after the twins as she said, "Beat them up it is!"

"Ugh, not you too!" Lacy complained as she chased Lupa.

 ** _Meanwhile, with Lynn Sr., Lisa, and Lily..._**

The trio reached the city square and the latter two stared with shock at the Gashadokuro as it kept being occupied by the teacher trio, while the former released himself from the scientist's grasp and looked around for any signs of Lucy.

"Okay, this is the place you think Lucy's at, right?" Lynn Sr. asked as he kept a close look at his surroundings. "All that's left then is to find Lucy and deliver the spear to her."

"Um, father unit, to try and scare you by suddenly shouting," Lisa pointed at the Gashadokuro. "But are you seeing the giant skeleton monster right there?!"

"Yeah, it's the Gashadokuro, sweetie, stay away from it if possible," Mr. Loud answered without even looking at the scientist. "Don't worry, once Lucy's counterpart is taken care of, I'm sure that thing will be taken care of as well."

Lisa folded her arms. "You're not even paying attention to me, are you?!"

The man went on to prove the scientist right by walking off to look for Lucy, shouting "Stay safe out here, girls!" before he began his search.

"Stay safe out here, he says," Lisa repeated with a stern tone. "Exactly what part of this is safe? Sure, the night dome was taken care of, but there's a giant monster out here that could destroy the city if it wasn't being distracted!"

"Then you should take advantage of its distraction."

The duo turned around and saw a stern Clyde walking towards them, both of his hands saved in his pockets.

"Clyde? What are you doing out here?" Lisa asked. "I mean, with your parents being as protective as they are-"

"Shut up and listen, I need your help," Clyde told the girls. "I'm assuming that among the sisters, you're the one whose powers are related to the mind, right?"

"That's the same idea I had when I examined the castes, yes," Lisa answered, exchanging worried looks with Lily before she asked, "Are you feeling well, Clyde? I don't remember you being willing to tell a toddler to shut up."

Clyde rubbed her forehead. "I'm sorry, it's just, so many things have happened so far, and the last few things that I've found out have really angered me, so, I guess you could say I'm not exactly feeling well..."

The boy shook his head. "But that's besides the point! Listen, I have an idea on how to get rid of the giant skeleton thing, but I need to get inside its head first. So, and pardon my stupid-sounding plan here, could you open up a portal to his mind on top of his skull so I can enter the body itself, so I can take out the piece that's supposedly holding it together?"

Instead of questioning Clyde's sanity with the baffling statement, Lisa scratched her chin and lowered her head as she thought about his plan.

Then again, everything was so insane at this point, Clyde's plan sounded fairly sane in comparison.

"Yes, I think it can work," Lisa nodded. "If we can get to the skull without it throwing us out there, I can try to open a portal in its head to give you entry."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Clyde activated his jet shoes. "Let's go!"

Nodding in agreement, Lsa activated her jet shoes and the duo and Lily flew up to the Gashadokuro's head, dodging the beast's attacks as Mrs. Shrinivas watched them.

"Is that... Lisa? And Clyde?!" she exclaimed. "H-Hey, get out of here! It's too dangerous!"

"Shrinivas, don't lose focus!" Mrs. Johnson told the woman.

The woman turned back to see the team. "B-But Lisa... Clyde..."

Weren't listening as they reached the top of the monster's head, and set foot on it, upon which Lisa got an idea: She turned one of her arms into an arm buster, but rather than charge a beam, she charged a laser that allowed her to slowly melt parts of the Gashadokuro's head, until the melted spots fell and created an opening.

An opening that shot a massive stream of dead bodies barely a second later.

"What did you do that for!?" Clyde snapped, trying to keep his footing.

"You told me to open a portal to his mind, didn't you?!" the scientist toddler shouted in response. "Well, I cut open a hole in its skull so you cold use it to enter!"

"I thought you would put your hands down, do some runic mumbo jumbo and open an actual portal into its head!" Clyde shouted in response. "I mean, this works too, but-"

Lisa, with her eyes glowing green, snapped with a reverb voice:

"Shut up and get inside!"

Too startled to argue back, Clyde jumped into the hole, and it closed itself moments afterwards, just in time for the scientist to turn back to normal and looked around dazzed.

"What... was that all about?" Lisa asked as Lily flew to her side. "I don't know how, but... I feel like something inside me made me react with anger to Clyde's complaints."

Once the hole closed off, the Gashadokuro decreased in size as the teachers analyzed it and Mrs. DiMartino said:

"The Gashadokuro is getting weaker!"

"Attention all nearby units, the Gashadokuro has weakened!" Mrs. Johnson reported to the other agents around the city. "We don't know how long it'll stay like that, so come here and help us fight it while its weak!"

Mrs. Shrinivas, however, looked at the monster's head with a worried look as she uttered a name:

"Clyde..."

As for the boy himself? He found himself on a literal pitch black void, which was only illuminated by a green aura around him, and several more auras coming from what looked like the bodies conforming the Gashadokuro.

"So, this is how this thing's interior looks like?" the boy said as he looked around. "Well then, good things those auras as working as lanterns, otherwise I wouldn't be able to see where I should head forward!"

And so, the boy used his jet shoes to fly deeper into the monster, in search for its foundation: Calliope.

 ** _Outside the Gashadokuro..._**

Lisa and Lily landed on the ground safely as the group of Ronnie Anne, Polly Pain, Tabby, Maggie, Sam, and Rocky arrived at the scene as well. Just in time to hear the Gashadokuro roar in pain.

"Looks like that thing's in pain," Maggie remarked with a glad smile. "If things keep up at the pace they are, it'll go down pretty soon!"

"Will that take care of the zombies, though?" Rocky asked, scratching his head. "I mean, there's still a ton of them left around the city, shouldn't we be trying to deal with them?"

"Silly kid, everybody knows that for every army or enemy group as big as this one, there's always one unit that's bigger, badder, and most importantly, most important than everybody else combined," Sam replied as she looked at the Gashadokuro and created an energy guitar. "I think the unit is this giant skeletal monstrosity over here!"

She then leaped as high as she could and began smashing it against the skeleton's body as Maggie said:

"So, in theory, getting rid of that thing would get rid of the zombies as well. But that would still leave the other non-zombie threats like-"

And then Sam yelled, "Shut up and come help me with this thing!"

Maggie and Tabby exchanged looks, sighed, and along with Polly Pain and Rocky, went up as high as they could and joined the effort to defeat the monster.

Before Ronnie Anne could join them, however, Lisa stopped her. "What is it, Science-O?!"

"Clyde just entered the monster's mind, with the help of yours truly of course, in order to try and destroy it from the inside!" Lisa explained, with Lily nodding for confirmation. "So-"

"We need to be extra careful when we fight it, got it," Ronnie Anne finished with a nod. "I'll tell the rest of the team about that, you two should go try to help elsewhere."

The tomboy promptly joined the rest of her team and, exchanging nods of agreement, Lisa and Lily promptly flew off to reunite with Lynn Sr., who was heading to the spot where the Lucies continued their battle...

 ** _Back in the Fight with Proto-Lucy..._**

Lucy and her counterpart had taken their fight up to the outskirts of the city, where the pair continued to clash their weapons against each other. Proto-Lucy swung her cythe as rapidly and as violently as she could, while Lucy moved her energy arms in order to block the attacks.

As soon as she grabbed her counterpart and started slamming her into the ground, their light form slowly changed until it turned pitch black, causing her to throw her counterpart away.

"I don't get it, why is it that whenever I attack to hurt you," Lucy exclaimed before she dispersed the dark energy arms. "My energy arms turn black?!"

"Don't you understand it? The more unstable or more violent you become, the more your energy changes to reflect it," Proto-Lucy explained as she hit the ground. "Until now, your powers were made of light because you were either on the defensive or on a relatively stable mindset."

The prototype stood up, flashing a malignant smirk. "But now that your emotions are on the loose, now that you want to kill me, your darkness is overpowering your light!"

Lucy gritted her teeth, but before she could mutter anything, a pink flash flew by and hit Proto-Lucy right in the face, sending her crashing into a large boulder.

The flash turned out to be none other than Penelope, now having part of her body covered in pink flames, with an equally fiery pink aura surrounding her.

"Well, uh, thanks, I guess?" Lucy asked.

"I'm not here to help you or anything!" Penelope bluntly stated as she launched a glare towards the goth. "I'm here to avenge the child the monster that's your counterpart killed!"

"Me? Kill a child?"

The duo turned and saw Proto-Lucy jump out of the rubble, no worse for wear as she said:

"Oh no, I never hurt even a single child. My champion Haiku, however, would do so at a moment's notice. Perhaps she's the one you're looking for?"

"Don't play with me!" Penelope hissed. "Gusion already told me everything about what you made her do, under your command!"

Lucy's eyes widened. "You mean Lynn's counterpart?"

"Ah, would you perhaps be the mother of the lovechild known as Calliope?" Proto-Lucy guessed. "I had a feeling this was familiar, but now I get it."

Penelope hissed like a wild animal as the prototype explained:

"You know, I once had the feeling that the Lucy of this world would give birth to a Lupa, one whose mere existence would be one of suffering, in a different manner than the rest of the lovechildren. Then, I could replace your daughter with the Lupa, effectively saving her from an anguished existence under her father."

Proto-Lucy sighed and shook her head. "But it seems I was wrong. Her virginal purity is intact, which can only mean one thing: Lincoln has once again decided to be selective over who gets to live."

Proto-Lucy smirked. "Sounds to me that he'd rather let a healthy child like yours be sacrificed, rather than a malformed seed of his!"

Penelope leaped straight towards Proto-Lucy and began clawing at her, with the prototype simply taking the strikes as Lucy took a couple steps back, and clashed with someone: Her father, and her scientific sister.

"Dad?!" Lucy exclaimed. "What are you doing here?!"

"Long story short: Everything's going to heck and everybody's coming to try and stop that," Lynn Sr. explained before he showed the Loud Slayer spear to Lucy. "But for now, just take this, it'll help you in your fight."

Lucy hesitantly reached for the spear, and as soon as she grabbed it, the spear was surrounded by a grey light that slowly broke off to reveal a pure blood-red spear, looking like it was completely bathed in blood.

"It's the Gae Bolg!" Lynn Sr. answered, while Lucy continued. "It's the legendary spear from Irish mythology, said to be capable of killing anything as long as its imbued with divine essence!"

"Divine essence?" Lisa repeated, raising an eyebrow before she thought up a disturbing possibility. "Wait, doesn't that mean it's just a normal spear until Lucy transforms?!"

"Well, I guess, but it's a spear that can cause mortal damage!" Lynn Sr. turned to the goth girl and exclaimed, "Lucy! Access your divine power so you can use the spear to end this once and for all!"

Lucy glanced at the spear, then sheepishly smiled as the trio realized not only the new hurdle she'd have to overcome, but that Proto-Lucy was already back up, with Penelope laying on the ground trying to get back up.

"When will you open your eyes and see Lincoln for the monster he really is?" Proto-Lucy asked with an exasperated tone. "When will you finally see that you're not fighting the real bad guys?"

"After everything I've seen you do, there's nothing for me to see," Lucy stated. "Lincoln might have been the one to destroy the original reality, but you and the rest of the prototypes are the ones trying to ruin everything?"

"Just what the hell did Lincoln do to make you so naive?" Proto-Lucy asked with a sigh. "We're not trying to destroy everything, we're trying to save everything from his clutches!"

"Then you're doing a really pathetic job at it!" Lucy stated as she prepared to throw the spear.

Proto-Lucy gritted her teeth and snapped her fingers, materializing several spears out of nowhere which she threw at Lucy, who dodged them before she threw the Gae Bolg at her counterpart.

The prototype immediately jumped away to dodge the strike, then summoned and shot even more spears at Lucy as she made the spear go right back to her hand, then threw it again at Proto-Lucy, this time successfully piercing the prototype's stomach.

And in the worst display of timing skills ever, the Mortician's Club appeared and approached the prototype, saying:

"Oh, great Mother Vine, we apologize for bringing bad news, but we failed to gather enough dead bodies to feed the Gashadokuro's rise!"

"It's alright, I still managed to find a way to summon him despite your incompetence," Proto-Lucy answered. "However, I thought you would've joined the corpses that would make up the giant beast."

"Before I explain myself, explain yourselves: How did you fail to gather the corpses?"

"We were gathering them just fine, but then Marut attacked, and we had to retreat!"

"Marut?!" Proto-Lucy's eyes widened. "I see... so, Lori's puppet decided to enter the battlefield, right? In that case..."

Proto-Lucy reeled her scythe back, then swung it, slashing the mortician's club in half as she proclaimed:

"Find safety in the Gashadokuro!"

The prototype snapped her fingers, and as if on cue, the giant skeleton turned around, opened its mouth, and somehow inhaled the club's bodies and swallowed them, causing the small cracks all over its bodies to slightly heal as it grew a bit bigger as well.

"No way, she killed her own servants to give this monstrosity more power!" Mrs. Johnson exclaimed as she leaned back. "DiMartino! Try to disorient it!"

The suited teacher nodded, and immediately screamed at the skeletal monster, causing it to cover its ears while, back with Lucy and Proto-Lucy, the former leaped towards her counterpart and clashed weapons with her, baring her fangs at her as she smugly said:

"Yes, let your emotions go wild! Let your sense of stability collapse in the rage within you!"

Proto-Lucy slowly started overpowering the goth girl as she exclaimed:

"Only then will you be able to use the darkness effectively! Only then, will you finally be anything but a failure in my eyes!"

However, without any warning whatsoever, a red, glowing image of a fist appeared in the sky, and its intense red light blinded the prototype, causing her to lose focus and be overpowered by Lucy just as the image slowly vanished, but not before bathing Lucy in red light as she jumped high and charged a Hikari.

"I don't know if this'll be enough kill you," she exclaimed as the image of the sun appeared behind her. "But if its enough to beat you, then it's fine!"

Lucy placed the hikari closed to the Gae Bolg, surrounding the sphere in a white light as she fell down and aimed her spear straight for her counterpart's body. And, just to make sure she wouldn't get up, Lucy charged another sphere of light and shot it at her counterpart right in the eyes, blinding her once more as the girl got closer and closer to her.

And upon contact, a grey explosion happened. One that caught everybody's attention, before the clouds parted with a red, fist-shaped hole in them caused them to disperse.

With the sunlight now illuminating the entire city more clearly, Proto-Lynn, still at the street from before, turned around to see the one responsible for the cleared skies: Lynn, now surrounded by a fiery aura, and her entire being looking like a sentient Lynn-shaped fireball.

"W-What?! T-That's impossible!" Proto-Lynn exclaimed, clenching her fists. "I learned just now that you headed to the sun, but there's no way you could've survived unless-!"

Lynn raised an eyebrow. "I was the real successor god?"

Proto-Lynn gritted her teeth and clenched her fist as Lynn walked towards her, hissing:

"This changes nothing: You're still mortal, and even if you survived the trip to the sun, that doesn't mean you'll survive the aftermath! It won't be long before your body itself caves in and turns into dust. And when that happens, how can you be so sure you'll come back?"

And then... Lynn ignored her and walked past her as she answered:

"I don't, so, I might as well make use of what little time I have left, right?"

With that said, Lynn left the scene and ran towards the Gashadokuro, with Proto-Lynn taking a deep breath and throwing her arm dismissively before she teleported to the outskirts of the city.

 ** _Meanwhile, back with Lucy and Proto-Lucy..._**

The former landed on the ground safely while the latter struggled to get up, with pieces of her body slowly breaking apart like shards.

"What's happening to you?" Lucy asked with a tone of disgust. "Are you really falling apart now?"

Proto-Lucy remained silent as more pieces of her body fell and hit the ground, shattering into pieces.

"Geez, I haven't even accessed my divine form yet, and I've already beaten you," Lucy sighed as she turned around and started to walk away. "Oh well, as long as the only thing left to deal with is the Gashadokuro, I guess I don't mind."

Still conscious, Penelope caught a glimpse of Proto-Lucy flashing a sadistic smirk as she turned into a liquid. She then headed straight for Lucy, prompting the redhead to shout:

"Lucy, look out!"

However, it was too late: Proto-Lucy's liquified form entered Lucy's body, causing a grey sphere to form around the girl as demented laughter came from her, with the sphere slowly cracking until it exploded. The girl herself then powered up, conjuring an aura so powerful, the very ground shook violently.

And far away, this same vibration made Silas, who was on a rooftop, think of a disturbing idea:

"N-No... There's no way she'd do that!"

An idea that Proto-Lynn, along with Proto-Luna and Proto-Luan, got. Only instead of being shocked and worried, she was more disgusted:

"So, you've finally proven how much of a coward you are, Lucy?"

Back with the girl, the light cleared to reveal a peculiar fact: Lucy's clothing, heck, most of Lucy's being, was bathed in pure white colors, and emanating a white aura.

"This body will no longer decay, nor rot away, for it now controls both light and darkness. And soon, it will control both life and death as well."

The white Lucy smirked.

"That is the will..."

The white Lucy opened her eyes, revealing dark sclera and a pair of golden, glowing pupils as she exclaimed her name:

"Lucyfer!"

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Hi everyone, Catherine Sweetwater reporting to Royal Woods!"

Lucyfer watched the Gashadokuro fight the team from afar before she turned her attention towards Penelope, who was still standing.

"First the Gashadokuro, and now Proto-Lucy forcefully fused with Lucy?"

Then Lucyfer arrived at the battlefield, catching everybody off-guard. Then it showed Catherine speaking to her crew, before showing her on the Casagrandes' television.

"I should better report this to everyone who can help!"

Bobby said something about the newscast, but then immediately became worried when he was told Carlota wasn't there, who was then shown fighting the Gashadokuro with everyone.

"We're certainly going to need it if we want to survive!"

Chandler shot some lighting at the beast, but Ronnie Anne quickly stopped him, only to then show some more lighting striking the ast, this time coming from Bobby.

"Next time on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Meanwhile, at the organization, Lupa and the Leia-Lizy fusion Lezy fought until the fusion broke off, and then Lacy stopped the fight between them.

" _Forced Combination Between Light and Darkness! Can Someone Stop the Living Paradox That is Lucyfer?! Lincoln's Divine Arrival!_ "

Bun-Bun, the pets, Ronnie Anne, almost reaking everyone present then started to pray, with their prayers reaching a certain divine being: Lincoln.

"Don't miss it!"

The final scene showed Lincoln coming out of the heavens as the sky turned orange, and shards fell down, which he then surrounded by orange energy before he shot them at Lucyfer.


	41. Divine Arrival

**Okay, so, I may have made some miscalculations or have been vague on how much stuff is left to see in this arc, so, I'm going to be blunt and be honest with you: I checked the chapter, and chapter 42 is the official ending, with chapter 43 being an epilogue and closing chapter for the first act of this story.**

 **And speaking of that, should I continue the story in this very... well, story, or divide it into several parts, like "Act I," "Act II," etc.? I'll talk about this with Hope, but I want to hear your thoughts about this.**

 **Now, let's answer some reviews:**

 **1) Nobody245:**

 *** He'd get rid of a massive migraine, that's for sure. But, to be honest, what Lincoln is fighting is nothing more than a physical manifestation of the guy: He still exists within him, so even if he could destroy the manifestation, Sincoln would still exist.**

 *** I like to think all of the Proto-Sisters treated Lincoln nicely, or at least decently, before everything went to heck. Some were nicer than others, sure, but they all still treated him like a family member.**

 *** I don't remember ever there being a rule that a story can only be so long, but I don't think it exists: I mean, I checked on Google for stories that were over a 100 and 200 chapters (Yes, really), and not only did I find several stories that were just that long, but even one story (A First Time For Everything was the name I think, and it was a Sherlock fanfic) that is close to 300 chapters, and one story (Black Sky, a Harry Potter/Katekyo Hitman Reborn crossover) that's a little bit over that limit. So no, I don't think the length is going to be a problem.**

 **2) GennaiArakida-XIV: It's been a long time indeed, welcome back, buddy. :)**

 *** Is this a question of whether to blame the one who did the deed, or the one who gave the one who did the deed the task to do the deed?**

 **I think I just made a tongue twister...**

 *** That's how it always, works, really.**

 *** I guess you'll see soon.**

 *** Maggie: Thanks.**

 **3) Observant Guest:**

 *** I took a listen to some of the music you suggested:**

 **** "The Unsent Laugh" definitely gives off an ominous aura, which fits perfectly with how Haiku's mind has broken, and yet she has the ability to go sane to insane and back again in an instant.**

 **** Again, I've heard "You Say Run" several times before, and yeah, it certainly gives an epic feeling to what amounts to the return of the sunlight to Royal Woods.**

 **** "Hideout Helm" certainly fits with the idea of the organization, or heck, anywhere at all, being suddenly invaded by the children between the gods of the world, especially when their parent is freaking Lincoln! It's like Meteora Butterfly, but more human... for now.**

 *** Well, to keep things short (Because I don't know if you'll actually look at it or if it'll interest you, only that you probably have enough stuff on your plate), it's a generic-at-first-glance magical girl Loud House fanfic where the Loud Sisters become magical girls to fight back against a threat known as Shadows, which invade Royal Woods one day.**

 *** I see, I'll try to make the comparisons more obviou next time, but then again, we're kinda reaching past the point where the original story ended with the Lucy arc, since the next one we're getting is not the Proto-Lily arc like before, but Proto-Lisa's arc.**

 *** You really think Cristina wouldn't evolve beyond the standard caste by this point?**

 *** Savage as in, "420 blaze it" kind of savage, or savage as in really freaking brutal? Dumb question, I know, but it's worth asking.**

 *** Yeah, those four... might not be good together.**

 *** Oh, if only it was that easy...**

 *** And considering the amount of crap he's been going through (Having his loyalty to Lincoln questioned, having to work with the Lincolnists without knowing about it during the beach, trying to get along with Ronnie Anne, worrying for Lynn's safety when it's clear one wrong move and she's dead, and now the revelation that Haiku, the girl she bonded with during the Sadie Hawkins episode, is supposedly the one responsible for killing his adoptive interdimensional daughter), it'd be weirder if he didn't crack.**

 *** I wonder what the movie poster would look like. "Sin Children: Civil War," maybe?**

 *** And as things reach the ultimate climax, it's only going to escalate even further.**

 **4) ChernoMan:**

 *** Yeah, especially if It's anybody other than Lincoln.**

 *** Dang.**

 *** Only those of Luan's caste, I think, plus Lincoln and the sisters.**

 *** Um, being dead too?**

 *** Truth be told, Xucy's more or less an after thought at this point.**

 *** No, It's a certain someone that lives in a pineapple under the sea.**

 *** Truth be told, I kinda lost track of how much crap I was supposed to finish by the end of this arc.**

 *** I've heard of Elder Scrolls, but I've never played it.**

 *** Sigh, I hope this super chapter doesn't disappoint.**

 **Now, without further ado, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 41: Forced Combination Between Light and Darkness! Can Someone Stop the Living Paradox That is Lucyfer?! Lincoln's Divine Arrival!**

* * *

Back where we left off, the battle with the Gashadokuro raged on, and from the distance, the newly formed Lucyfer watched the creature fight against its oppressors. From her crossed her arms and her condescending smile, though, it was difficult to determine whether the fused being was amused or enraged at the sight.

Or if she was simply trying to hide her frustration at the fact that Penelope still managed to stand up.

"So, you've still got some life left in you?" Lucyfer asked as she turned her head all the way around to see the redhead. "I figured that my prototype shell would be enough to completely knock you out."

"You don't understand, do you?" Penelope hissed as she clenched her fists. "You killed my daughter! And you killed her for a petty reason too!"

"Now, there, using her as a foundation to create the beast that will attack the afterlife isn't a petty reason," Lucyfer answered as she turned her whole body as well... in the opposite direction from where she turned her head. "In fact, you should be honored to have your daughter be used as the foundation! She's the single most important piece of the monster!"

Penelope's aura intensified and she ran towards the combined being, yelling:

"How dare you say that about my daughter!?"

Penelope threw her punch, and hit the combined being as hard as she could... only to barely make her move her head and budge a feet.

"I'm sorry," Lucyfer said as she casually moved her face back to Penelope. "Was that supposed to hurt?"

Shocked at this revelation, Penelope froze as Lucyfer charged a punch and exclaimed:

"Let me show you how a real punch should feel!"

The hit connected, and several teeth flew out of Penelope's mouth as the girl budged a couple feet away... then dropped to her knees, and onto the floor, completely unconscious.

"Well, would you look at that?" Lucyfer said as she whipped the blood off her fist. "Looks like Ariel's strength really was added to my own."

And then she looked back at the unconscious Penelope. "Good thing I was holding back, otherwise I might've actually killed her."

Lucyfer scratched her chin and thought about it. "Then again, its another corpse for the Gashadokuro to absorb..."

Remembering the monster, she walked back to see it still fighting back the teacher trio and the team, which exasperated her.

"Hmph, I never thought the Gashadokuro would actually have to fight in order to reach the heavens: I always thought just a simple fracture of reality would be enough to get the job done. Well, I guess if you want something done, you gotta do it yourself."

The fused being leaped as high as she could towards the battlefield, taking out her soul energy and turning it into a scythe in the process. And with this scythe, she hit the ground hard enough to make it shake and send everybody near the radius flying off several feet away.

"Ugh, damn it, first we have to deal with the Gashadokuro, and now this brat shows up?!" Mrs. Johnson growled with exasperation.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Johnson, Becky and I beat a fusion once, and I'm certain we can do it again!" Catherine chirped. "Right, Becky?"

"Technically, we "beat" that fusion by outlasting it until their time limit ran out," Becky explained before she turned back to Lucyfer with a concerned look. "Meanwhile, I don't even know if this is a proper fusion or not, let alone if they have a time limit!"

Seeing that even Becky was concerned about a potential confrontation, Catherine got an idea and ran up to her news crew.

"Everybody, get the cameras and everything ready!" Catherine told the crew. "We need to make a special news broadcast!"

 ** _Meanwhile, at the Casagrande Residence..._**

The majority of the family, besides Carlota and Ronnie Anne, rested at the living room with worried looks, with Bobby even walking back and forth until he got a phone call. "Hello?"

"Chief, this is Nikki speaking!" the voice at the other end answered. "Casey, Sameer, and I finished gathering up the survivors of the zombie apocalypse!"

"That quickly?" Bobby asked with surprise.

"Well, we had help from a pair of twins: One with a pink dress and the other with blue overalls," Nikki answered. "Anyway, we're looking for a safe spot now, we'll keep you posted if anything happens."

Bobby hung up and put his phone on his pocket as he said, "A pink dress and blue overalls, huh? Sounds like the Louds are getting involved."

"Of course they'd get involved, what makes you think they wouldn't?" Hector asked. "They're the progenitors' targets, after all. Even if they wanted to stay out of this, the progenitors would probably do everything in their power to get them to come out."

"Well, I guess you have a point," Bobby frowned and lowered his head. "After all, we already know what would've happened to Ronnie Anne."

The rest of the family lowered their heads, knowing what he was talking about.

And then the TV turned on, and showed the news report Catherine talked about earlier.

"This is Catherine Sweetwater, reporting from Royal Woods city square! There's currently a giant monster by the name of Gashadokuro attacking the streets! It's advised that all civillians in the area should evacuate immediately, and stay in either their houses or their safe zones until the beast has been taken care of!"

With that said, something struck Catherine and the signal turned to static, just as the Casagrands' jaws hit the floor.

"Well, looks like things are going down the drain," Hector said as he stood up and pulled up his pants.

"What are you doing, Hector?" Rosa inquired as she stood up.

"We have to join the other agents in their fight against the Gashadokuro!" the old man answered.

"There's already too many people out there fighting for their lives in this apocalypse," Bobby answered, shaking his head. "And you know what they said: At the end of the day, the only ones who can destroy the progenitors are their respective counterparts."

The boy frowned and lowered his head. "Even if we gave it our all, there's no telling if it would make a difference in the end..."

"Carlota, this is the part where you say something like "we stand here and do nothing" or-"

"Carlota... isn't here, mijo," Mrs. Santiago answered.

Upon hearing that, Bobby turned around and exclaimed:

"Carlota hasn't returned yet?!"

 ** _Speaking of Carlota..._**

The teenager continued to fly around the Gashadokuro, shooting icicles at it while Claire and Watterson sent out sound waves and slashed at the beast, only for its body to barely take damage from the attacks.

Now when did they arrive to fight it, was anybody's guess.

And they weren't the only ones attacking, since Lindsey swung her yo-yo around and tied up the giant beast long enough to allow Chandler to paralyze the monster with his lighting powers.

"I'm glad you decided to help us, Chandler!" Lindsey told the boy.

"You've made it clear that you're not going to stand back and watch everything happen!" Chandler answered as he tried to keep the beast stunned. "If that's your decision, then I have no choice but to follow you!"

And then he intensified his electricity, which caught Ronnie Anne's attention.

"Chandler, stop it!" the tomboy exclaimed as she ran to his side. "Clyde's inside the beast!"

"Wait, what?!" the boy said as he stopped shooting lighting. "H-How do you even know that? How did he even do it?!"

"He got on top of the monster's head, created a green square in it, and next thing I see, he goes into his head, and he hasn't come out yet!" Ronnie Anne explained before she turned to face the giant monster. "I don't know if the attacks hitting the monster will hurt him too, but, just in case-"

"Alright, I understand," Chandler generated a pair of thunderbolts. "I'll stick with normal bolts from now on."

Ronnie Anne nodded and gave the redhead a thumbs up, before she rejoined the rest of her team in fighting the monster. As she generated a lighting sword and prepared to swing it, however, she remembered Lisa's words:

" _Clyde's currently inside the Gashadokuro._ "

This made the girl stop, dissipate her lighting sword and look at the rest of the team fighting the monster as she pondered something out loud:

"Would hurting this monster hurt Nerd-O as well?"

 ** _Meanwhile, at the Organization..._**

The lovechild twins reached a deeper layer of the organization, where they put Pop Pop down as he caught his breath, and asked, "Did I deal with those girls?"

"Not even close, old man," Leia answered as she stood up. "You managed to restrain them, but knowing their powers, it won't be long before they free themselves."

"Then you two have to get out of here as soon as you can," Pop Pop stated. "I'll try to hold them off as much as I can."

"But you were exhausted from using your powers just a moment ago!" Lizy pointed out.

"Well... yeah, you got a point," Pop Pop laughed.

"But that's especially weird, though," Leia remarked. "I've never seen somebody get exhausted after using their powers once."

"Well, I wasn't really born for fighting," the old man answered. "In fact, I think that's the first time I've used my powers since I was Lincoln's age."

"Since you were Dad's age?" Leia repeated in disbelief. "Why wouldn't you use your powers since then?"

"Listen kid, the powers are good for fighting and very little else, besides my florist business went down and with the world at peace, that's where I used my powers the most," the man explained. "Without that, and with the world in a state of peace, I failed to see a reason to use my powers."

Pop Pop shrugged. "Although, I could also just be too old in general."

"Whatever the case, it's only a matter of time before Lupa and Lacy chase after us," Leia turned back to the way they came from. "And there's no way we'll be able to deal with them on our own, let alone one of them."

And then, Lizy got an idea:

"Well, we can't deal with them on our own... but, there might be a way we can deal with one of them."

Leia quickly caught on. "Are you sure about it?"

"What other option do we have?" Lizy pointed at Pop Pop. "A family member's in danger. And sure, he's not the same as the one in our dimension, but still..."

Leia nodded, then asked, "So, who'll be the warden and the prisoner?"

Pop Pop could only raise an eyebrow as the girls promptly discussed the "warden-prisoner" thing as if they didn't realize there was a confused old man nearby. But nevertheless, the twins eventually decided to go with the same setup as before: Leia as the warden and Lizy as the prisoner.

So, one chain fusion later, Lezy was remade, surprising Pop Pop.

"Whoa, you fused in an unorthodox way?!" he asked as he slowly stood up. "Back in my day, the only known way to fuse was to hold hands and desire to unite or something!"

"Things have changed, old man," Lezy answered with Leia's voice, before adding in Lizy's voice. "For now, just sit down and don't move too much."

Soon afterwards, the duo turned to the spot where they came from, and saw Lupa bursting in, ridding on top of what looked like a wave of spiritual corpses, kinda like the beam that came out of the Gashadokuro's head-

Oh...

"So, you two decided to fuse?" Lupa asked with a tone of amusement at Lezy's presence. "Do you really think that'll be enough to beat me?"

"Hey, it's a higher chance to do it than if we were alone," Lezy stated as she bared her crystal claws. "And we're sorry, but we're not going to come back with you just yet."

"Tsk, what a rebellious attitude," Lupa growled as she summoned her scythe. "No wonder Mom called you the annoying ones!"

Lupa swung her scythe once, unleashing a beam at the fusion that they narrowly dodged before they raised their arms and tried to summon some earth, only for nothing to happen.

"Ha! Don't tell me you expected to be able to work your powers on a sterilized place like this?" Lupa scoffed as she spun her scythe. "This organization's metal floors blocks the earth that you two use so often for your powers, meaning you're practically defenseless!"

Lupa lunged forward towards the fusion, but they, through Leia and Lizy remembering what Pop Pop did, put their hands on the ground and managed to raised a crystal large enough to block the lovechild's strike, proclaiming:

"Almost defenseless!"

Lupa gritted her teeth and cut the crystal in half, allowing Lezy to manipulate it and send it flying straight at her, only for Lupa to cut it to pieces... which simply allowed Lezy to manipulate said pieces in order to cut Lupa severely.

They were only minor cuts, but it was the best they could do at the moment.

Soon after, Lupa swung her scythe at the fusion, and they dodged the strike, only to catch a glimpse of Lupa's smirk before she opened her eyes wide at them, somehow unleashing a force so intense, the fusion was sent flying into a wall so hard they crashed through it, with Lupa following them soon after.

And then Lacy arrived to see Pop Pop looking utterly horrified.

"Old man, where did Lupa and the twins go?!" she asked as she helped the man get up.

"They went deeper into the organization," Pop Pop answered. "I don't know how strong they are, but I feel like they won't stand much longer against that white haired girl!"

"Lupa..." Lacy narrowed her eyes. "Alright, old man, follow me!"

Pop Pop obliged, and the pair ran deeper into the building. After a while, they found Lezy trying to hold off Lupa with some more crystals, only for the girl to swung her scythe, repeatedly destroying the crystals until she swung it at Lezy...

And split them apart back into Leia and Lizy.

"Alright then, time's up, you two!" Lupa aimed her scythe at the duo. "Get back up, and come back with Lacy and me to the spadesship!"

The twins exchanged looks, and just as they were ready to answer, Lupa snapped her fingers and summoned the wave of bodies again, saying:

"Be careful with what you say next-"

"Lupa, stop!"

Lacy jumped in front of the twins, getting on her sister's nerves.

"First the twins and now you, Lacy?!" the girl snapped.

"Lupa, we don't have to "solve" this stuff through violence!" Lacy stated as she stood her ground.

"Says the daughter of my most violent aunt!" Lupa snapped, causing Lacy to narrow her eyes. "Get out of my way, Lacy, this is your last warning!"

Lacy narrowed her eyes. "And what makes you think you can boss me around?!"

Lupa snapped her fingers and pointed at Lacy, causing the wave to head straight for Lacy as she stated:

"If you won't move away by will, you'll do so by-!"

And then she saw a large fireball where Lacy stood.

"-Force?"

The wave was absorbed into the fireball, which slowly turned from red to orange as the bodies were separated, and then the fireball was split to show the bodies, now souls of the deceased, flying off into the afterlife, leaving Lupa with no more wave to control.

And as she turned to look at Lacy with disbelief, the lovechild jock explained:

"Fire has a purifying nature to it, and by all means, zombies are a corruption of life that should be dead. All I did was free them from their corrupted selves so they could go to the afterlife they deserve."

"What afterlife?! Dad locked it so Mom couldn't gain control of it!" Lupa snapped, stomping the ground. "The only place you sent them was a limbo where it won't take long before they go nuts!"

Lacy raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?"

Realizing what she said, Lupa looked shocked for a moment before she shook her head and stated:

"That doesn't matter: How are we going to get the twins to come with us now!?"

Lacy rolled her eyes, walked to the twins and crouched down, brushing their heads as she said:

"Listen, you two, I know things aren't that good at Lincolnism, and that you don't want to go back there by force. But remember: We don't have anywhere else to go, no family that knows us, and no guarantee that they'll love us either. You understand?"

Pop Pop frowned sympathetically as the jock continued:

"We only have each other, so, if anything happens to you two, then that's two more losses we'll never be able to recover. So, how about we go back to the closest thing we got to a home, and call it a day?"

The twins exchanged looks, then lowered their heads and nodded, with Lacy helping them stand up and walk out of the room as Lupa stood still, watching with an incredulous look. She joined the trio shortly afterward, leaving Pop Pop to rest alone.

"My greatgrandchildren are quite a lively bunch, I see, hehe..."

 ** _Meanwhile, with Luan..._**

In what must've been milleniums since her last appearance, the angelic comedian stood in front of the corrupted Giggles and her familiar, who were both frozen inside some yellow sphere that Luan seemed to be able to control herself.

"So, from what I can gather," Luan remarked as she moved her hand around. "It seems I have power over time."

With a little motion, Luan undid part of the yellow sphere freezing the duo, unfreezing one of the balls held by the familiar and causing it to drop on her, until she extended a part of the sphere to freeze it.

With that done, Luan then looked at her hand, then back at the angry clown girl, which brought a frown to her face. She aimed her hand forward, and swiped it until Giggles came out of the circle, with the familiar trying to get out a moment later before Luan freezed them again.

"H-Huh? What happened?!" Giggles asked. "How long has it been?!"

"I honestly don't know, I don't have a watch with me," Luan shrugged and rolled her eyes. "But I'm willing to bet it's been like a half hour or something. I mean, this crazy stuff always seems to happens in hours, so-"

"Why did you make time resume only for me?!" the clown girl suddenly snapped. "You're strong enough to take on both me and her at the same time!"

"Hey, hold it there, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Luan waved her hands, trying to maintain a friendly smile. "I'm still trying to get the hang of this divine power thing, so even if I was that good-"

"When will you quit it with the nice girl act?" Giggles folded her arms and looked elsewhere. "Just drop it already and reveal your true self, you jerk. There's no more reason for you to lie to me."

Giggles glared at the girl. "I've already seen what you were capable of."

"How..." Luan raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

Giggles took a deep breath.

"Maggie."

A chill fell down Luan's spine, a chill so intense, the girl was covered in literal yellow ice that covered her entire form, before it slowly cracked and shattered, somehow rendering her back to normal.

"You know... what happened between Maggie and me, don't you?" Luan asked, her eyes shivering as she frowned and crouched down. "How did you find out?"

"Your own counterpart trapped me, my friends, and several other people in her sick tent of sorts, and we all got to witness several nightmares," Giggles explained. "Among the nightmares, I saw one where you did a horrible prank to the Maggie girl, and how you laughed about it like a madwoman!"

Luan took a deep breath and lowered her head. "That's not exactly what happened."

Giggles raised an eyebrow, and the comedian thusly explained:

"When I was younger, Maggie and I were the best of friends. We played pranks together, we laughed together, we got each other's backs, and so on and so forth. However, that didn't mean that we were immune to each other's pranks: Maggie would prank me, and I would prank back. But it was all in good fun."

Luan stood up, and clenched her fists.

"Until it wasn't."

Giggles frowned, feeling slightly sympathetic to Luan as she continued her explanation:

"One day, something woke up inside of me, something that wanted to create more elaborate pranks, regardless of whether they would be safe for the ones being pranked or not. And, for one reason or another, I chose Maggie to be the test subject."

Luan grabbed her arm. "And the nightmare you saw, was the time when I tested the prank on Maggie, who I didn't know had no idea about it at this point."

The comedian hugged herself and shivered as she remembered what happened:

"Maggie broke a leg... and an arm... and while that happened, I wasn't able to properly process what I was doing. I was just thinking how it would be hilarious, how in the end, even if she got hurt, we would just share a laugh over this a moment later."

The shivering stopped, and turned back to Giggles, now looking positively mortified.

"But Maggie didn't laugh... she cried..."

Luan fell on her knees, and sniffed for a moment before she took some deep breaths, and wiped off her tears."

"So, that's what happened..."

Suddenly, a flash of pink light happened, which Luan failed to notice as she opened her eyes and continued:

"But don't worry, I know that just explaining what happened won't fix anything-"

And then, she saw the familiar bursting into nothingness, with the yellow sphere vanishing as well as the clown girl slowly moved to the side, then hit the ground...

With her head falling off soon after.

"Giggles?"

 ** _Inside the Gashadokuro..._**

Clyde continued searching the void that was the inside of the Gashadokuro's head, with still no sign of any Calliope nearby... in fact, he couldn't see any other potential lovechild among the spirits floating in the vast void.

"If Calliope is the only lovechild in this place, I'm going to be so angry," Clyde said to himself, before he shouted, "Calliope! Where are you?!"

"D...Dad?"

Hearing a weak voice calling out for their "father," Clyde decided to follow his instincts and head closer to the voice calling out to a "Dad."

And fortunately, or in the case of Clyde's emotional stability, unfortunately, the one calling out to a Dad was none other than Calliope, who was suspended in the void while green strings emerged from her back, and connected with the several other spirits in the void.

"Dad?" the spirit uttered. "Is that you?"

"So not only is her soul intact and her body gone, but she can actually hear me?" Clyde asked out loud, horrified at the implications. "The more I think about it, the more I want to get her out of here!"

"Y-Yes, Calliope, it's me," Clyde answered slowly. "I'm Clyde, your adoptive... Father..."

The spirit looked around. "Where's Mom?"

"I wish I knew too..." Clyde said to himself, only to quickly correct himself, "U-Um, s-she's outside, holding it just fine on her own."

The boy flew closer to the girl. "Anyway, I came here to get you out of here."

"Where am I?" Calliope inquired as she kept looking around. "This doesn't look like Grandma's house."

"It isn't, but don't bother asking anything about it," Clyde replied as he reached for the girl. "We'll be out of this place in no time-"

And then, without any warning whatsoever, the entirety of the Gashadokuro was assaulted by an intense electric shock, causing all the souls to scream in agony while Clyde covered his ears and gritted his teeth, barely holding it together against the attack.

"What is this intense electric shock?!"

 ** _Back Outside..._**

Ronnie Anne turned around to see the source of the electric shock covering the beast came from none other than her brother, Bobby, who was soon joined by the rest of the Casagrandes, who also joined the attack.

"Bobby?!" Carlota exclaimed. "W-What are you doing here?!"

"That should be my question to you!" Bobby stated, not stopping the shock for a moment. "Don't you know it's dangerous to stay outside, especially with that giant beast out and about?!"

"Oh, stop being so worried about your cousin, boy!" Claire snapped as she stood by Carlota's side. "Her progenitor might be gone, but that doesn't change the fact she's a champion! And besides, things are under control!"

"If things really were under control, the Gashadokuro wouldn't have been summoned in the first place!" Bobby sternly stated. "And besides, this is a family matter, stay out of this!"

"Then how about _I_ take her place?!"

The trio turned around and saw Ronnie Anne standing by Carlota's other side, which surprised Bobby and especially Carlota herself.

"Ronnie Anne, what are you-?"

"I'm not going to stand back and watch as Bobby tries to take away someone who wants to help," Ronnie Anne stated before she gave a determined look to her cousin. "I nearly did that same mistake, and I'm not going to let it happen again."

Ronnie Anne then turned to the screaming beast. "And besides, there's someone inside that's being unfairly hurt!"

The tomboy then turned around, and getting an idea, she pointed at her birthmark, then charged energy in it before she created a hologram version of herself out of it, which was propelled straight into Bobby's face, though this didn't stop him from continuing the flow of electricity.

"What the heck is this?!" Bobby asked as he grabbed the hologram and threw her off.

"Bobby, as you're electrocuting the beast, you're also hurting the souls inside!" Ronnie Anne stated, getting her brother's attention. "And Nerd-O too!"

Bobby's eyes widened. "Who?"

"Clyde!" the tomboy snapped. "Clyde's inside the Gashadokuro along with the souls making it up!"

Bobby stopped shooting out lighting as he lowered his hand and head, thinking about what Ronnie Anne meant. However, he didn't quite get the right idea:

"How... how did he die?"

"What? Die?" Ronnie Anne inquired. "N-No, Nerd-O is just fine, Bobby!"

"Is he fine or is he dead, Ronnie Anne!?" Bobby snapped, startling the girl. "He can't be fine and be inside that giant monster at the same time!"

"Listen, Bobby, I don't know how to explain," Ronnie Anne, trying to calm her brother down. "But somehow, Clyde managed to enter the Gashadokuro's head through some portal, and is currently moving inside through the sea of dead bodies, or whatever that thing is!"

Bobby's sole response was a confused eyebrow, and going by the tomboy's explanation, could he be blame?

"Give up, Ronnie Anne, Bobby's far too much of a simpleton to understand something as complicated as someone being still alive inside an amalgamation of corpses," Carlota remarked, rubbing her forehead. "Although, to be fair, I'm having trouble understanding it too, so-"

Suddenly, Claire and Carlota were kicked off and sent plummeting to the ground, followed by Maggie and Sam, the former having the perpetrator standing right on top of her.

Simply put, it was Haiku, sporting a wide, demented grin.

"It was rather rude of you to leave me hanging after throwing that giant ball at me," Haiku said with a stern tone, her smile unfaltering as she added, "Especially when I'm not satisfied yet!"

Sam stood up and tried to slash the girl, but Haiku flashed a confident smirk before she suddenly disappeared, then appeared behind the girl and swung her away with her hair, right before she was paralyzed by Ronnie Anne's electricity.

"Poet-O, or whatever nickname I gave you, stop it!" Ronnie Anne stated as Polly and Tabby joined her side. "There's already enough crazy stuff happening with the Gashadokuro behind us, we don't need another problem to deal with!"

"What Ronnie Anne's trying to say, is that there's no benefit to continue fighting us, Haiku!" Polly exclaimed, earning a look from the girl. "So please, if there's even a little bit of your sanity left, recognize how pointless this is and stop it!"

Haiku hummed as she thought about it, then eyed Ronnie Anne's shadow and caused it to take hold of the girl, releasing her and allowing her to continue her rampage once more.

With his frustration and stress over the situation building up, Bobby exclaimed:

"Where's Lori when you need her?!"

 ** _Back in Leni's Dimension..._**

Trying to stop the enraged Lincoln from destroying existence, apparently. Lori followed Lincoln as he mindlessly, savagely swung his claws at Sincoln, who flinched repeatedly as he tried to talk some sense into Lincoln:

"Come on, Junior, cut this thing out! You should be using your powers to get rid of the inferior lifeforms who plagued your world, not me! You need me!"

This only earned the living corruption a scream of anger from Lincoln so intense, he was sent flying off into the sky "wall" of the dimension, cracking it in the process and giving Leni even more pain.

"Alright, fine, you know what, screw this shit!" Sincoln snapped. "I've tried being reasonable with you, but if you won't listen to me, then you can go to hell for all I care!"

Lincoln opened his mouth, charged a beam with it, and shot it at Sincoln moments before the corrupted entity teleported away, causing the wall to be on the receiving end of the beam.

And of course, the one to suffer the most was Leni, who took even more deep breaths as she clutched her chest, with Carol still keeping her company.

"Lincoln!"

The boy turned around and looked at Lori, showing no reaction as the girl walked towards him and said:

"Lincoln, listen, I know you're angry, justifiably so, but you have to channel that anger to somewhere other than here. There's literally an entire city that needs your help right now!"

The boy stood still, seemingly taking his time to think about the girl's statement, which quickly got on her nerves. And then, a vision happened:

Lori had been replaced by Proto-Lori, who looked mostly the same as her but with light blue sclera and rectangular pupils. Her clothes were completely covered by her cloak, which was light blue with the Lori caste depicted at the sides.

From Lincoln's position, it was clear the boy was either sitting or on his knees, and listening to the girl as she sternly said:

"You have a purpose, understood?! We _all_ do! And not all of us are happy with it, but we deal with it nonetheless! But no, just because _you're_ not happy with what you're doing, we're supposed to let you ruin everything the creatore made by doing something different?!"

The boy tried to say something, but all he heard was nondescript noise. Proto-Lori did hear it, though, and she seemed displeased.

"Don't start whining about that now! _We_ didn't have a choice; _Your children_ didn't have a choice; What makes you think you'd have a choice instead of us!?"

Proto-Lori grabbed the boy by the neck and lifted him, with screeching noise filling the background as she growled:

"Now listen up, you ungrateful brat! You _will_ continue to do what you're doing, you _will_ continue to fulfill your role, and nothing less than the destruction of this perfect world the creater made, will change anything!"

The vision ended, and now the boy was back in the dimension, with Lori looking at him with her hands on her hips as she asked:

"Understood?"

The boy stared at the girl, standing completely motionless as Lori felt an unnerving chill go down her spine, forcing her to shout:

"Lincoln, I asked you if you understood!"

The boy's eyes turned red and he let out a titanic roar as a voice spoke in Lori's mind:

" _Sounds like he wants a fight! Let me give him what he wants!_ "

"Wait, don't-!"

Lori unwillingly threw a fist at Lincoln, and though she managed to stop the boy, an intense pain was felt on her arm as the boy slowly turned to look back at her.

Then he screamed as he clenched his fist and threw a punch of his own, hitting Lori right in the stomach with such intensity, the resulting force created a "beam" of wind that then pierced through the dimension, and went on to be seen from Earth, and space.

As for Lori? She took a couple steps back, her eyes diluted to their smallest possible state as blood came out from both edges of her mouth. Then, she slowly looked down at her body...

Where she once had a stomach, now she had a wide circle, with the visible bone evaporating soon after, causing her to hit the ground.

And soon after that, Lincoln stomped the ground and roared once again, letting out a titanic noise that was heard all across the dimension.

 ** _Loud House Backyard..._**

"Master Lincoln's gone out of control!"

The one who said that was Bun-Bun, who jumped up from his position, with the family pets laying around on the grass.

"What are you talking about?" Charles asked as he stood up and walked to the living toy. "Is something wrong with Lincoln?"

"Something? Everything is wrong with him!" Bun-Bun answered with extreme concern. "It seems that something has severely angered him, bringing out his inner divine wrathful berserker self!"

"Well, ain't that a mouthful," Waltz rolled their eyes. "Why don't you just say he's angry and be done with it? Whatever's bothering him, it'll probably be dealt with soon."

Bun-Bun, knowing Lincoln better than anybody else-supposedly anyway-got on his knees and placed his mitten hands together.

"What are you doing now?" Geo asked.

"I'm praying for Master Lincoln to get back to his senses!" the toy rabbit bluntly answered. "Prayer's the only way we're getting through to Lincoln, now that he's been blinded by rage!"

Soon enough, Charles joined the toy rabbit in his praying efforts, and he gestured the rest of the pets to do the same. They seemed fairly uncertain as to whether this would work or not, but they nonetheless took a deep breath, and joined the praying session.

And so, the group started praying together...

 ** _Back with the Gashadokuro fight..._**

The groups dealing with the giant skeletal beast started running into trouble as Ronnie Anne, Polly Pain, and Tabby continued to try and deal some sort of damage to the corrupted Haiku, who kept dodging their attacks like it was nothing.

This continued for a while until a flash of light happened, and Stella appeared out of nowhere with a bow and arrow aimed right at Haiku's head, with the corrupted poet barely being able to flinch at the sight before the arrow pierced right through her head, killing her instantly.

"Haiku!" Polly exclaimed in shock.

"Who are you!?" Tabby snapped at Stella. "And what do you think you're doing?!"

"Who am I, and what I just did, doesn't matter," Stella stated. "What matters is that you get on your knees, and start praying to Lincoln!"

"Wait, hold it right there!" Ronnie Anne snapped. "You can't just appear out of nowhere, kill one of our friends, then bark at us to pray to Lame-O!"

"The "friend" that was just trying to kill you a moment ago?" the archer inquired, folding her arms. "Listen up, things are dire enough as it is: Either you pray to Lincoln so he comes turn the tables, or you wait until its too late and see everything you love and care about be destroyed a second time!"

Then, Stella turned to face Bobby from afar and sternly said, "That goes for you and everybody else too!"

The boy flinched, but quickly regained his composure. "Even if we could sit down and pray, there's a chance the beast would interrupt us!"

Stella rolled her eyes. "That's your problem, not mine!"

The girl promptly vanished, and the Gashadokuro, apparently finally noticing them, clenched his fist and slammed their fist down, crushing them underneath it.

Or so it seemed, since a second later, a figure lifted the fist with their own hands, a fiery figure whose identity became clear to Ronnie Anne soon enough:

"Jock-O?!"

"Heh, I didn't think reaching this form would give me greater strength," Lynn narrowed her eyes and smiled with confidence. "But I'm not going to complain about that!"

Gathering a little more strength, Lynn launched the fist right back at the Gashadokuro, just in time for Lucyfer to come out of nowhere and tackle her into a building.

However, Lynn quickly opened her eyes and shot a fiery beam at the fused goth, sending her back several feet away.

"Hmm, you look quite different from the last time I saw you, fake Lucy," Lynn scoffed, angering the fusion into powering up. "What happened? Did you die on the inside or something?"

"The being you're seeing right now is the true Lucy!" Lucyfer boasted, aiming her scythe at the girl. "Now, take back what you said before I imprison you on the pits of tartarus!"

"Heh, go ahead, I challenge you to do that!" Lynn boasted in return. "I'll just climb right back out and pummel you until you bring Lucy back!"

Now truly furious, Lucyfer generated a pair of soul scythes and lunged at Lynn, who took a battle stance and smirked with confidence.

 ** _Then, with Lisa and Lily..._**

The girls watched the fight with the Gashadokuro from the top of a cliff, just as Lynn Sr. arrived and said:

"Lisa, I think it's time we call it quits and go to a safe place."

The girls turned and gave the man a shocked look.

"Listen, it's not like I want to leave, but what can we do at this point? I already delivered Lucy her weapon, everybody is fighting the Gashadokuro or the combined form of the Lucies, there's nothing we can do right now!"

And then, Lisa remembered something:

"The Royal Woodroid 5000!"

"Your dream project?" Lynn Sr. inquired.

"Yes! I've been working on it for a long time, and I'm pretty sure it's just as big as that massive skeleton!" Lisa added. "Take Lily with you, find the Royal Woodroid 5000 and bring it here! I'll pilot it and buy everybody time!"

Lynn Sr. tried to say something, but Lily simply grabbed him with her mechanical crib's arms and flew back to the Loud House, leaving Lisa behind.

And once she was alone, the girl smiled and scoffed:

"Hmph, "find the Royal Woodroid 5000," I said. "I'll pilot it and buy everybody time," I said."

The toddler sat on the ground and shook her head.

"The giant robot I have back home is nothing more than a collection of junk that Lily helped me gather, and even if it could be taken out without falling apart, there's no guarantee that it wouldn't be destroyed in a single hit by that beast."

Lisa sighed and lowered her head.

"I guess I just couldn't say, "Please take Lily back to a safe place, Dad."

"Geez, you're being quite the downer, don't you think?"

The scientist toddler lifted her head and turned around to see a certain someone was the one who said that:

"Darcy?"

"You're the matriarch of the caste whose powers are based around technology and machinery; Your very purpose during the creation of the world, was to bring technological advancements. You never needed to gather junk to create your robot, all you needed to do was wish for it to come to life, and it would've done so."

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "And you came out all the way over here, just to tell me that?"

"Who says I'm here?" the girl giggled. "Anyway, my point is, you've always wanted to use the Royal Woodroid 5000 in this kind of situation, right? Well, now's your chance, you just gotta think about it."

With that said, Darcy turned around as she was enveloped in a turquoise light with green electricity, revealing a birthmark at the back of her head. It had a circle for its first segment, colored green, and a square for the second segment, colored turquoise, with the second segment's edges spiraling off into the circle.

And of course, there was a spades center. Only instead of Orange, it was Green.

The light surrounding Darcy dispersed, and the image of the girl vanished as Lisa took a deep breath, and promptly thought:

" _I don't know how this is supposed to work, but... Royal Woodroid 5000, if you can hear me, come into existence right here, right now!_ "

A second later, a green light illuminated Lisa's back, and the toddler started to float upwards as she realized this.

"W-Wait, what's going on?"

Before long, a metal shell surrounded Lisa, and from that shell, several metallic pieces came out and started to contort into peculiar shapes:

Two giant robotic arms, colored dark green.

Two giant robotic legs, colored dark green as well.

A giant robotic torso, and finally, and equally big robotic head, colored white with a green visor.

Have I mentioned the pieces were gigantic?

The pieces promptly went to the metallic shield, with the torso combining the arms and legs into itself, and the head absorbing the metallic shield into itself, before it got on top of the torso, completing the formation.

The end result was a giant, dark green robot with lavender highlights, who struck a pose before its final pieces came out: An L-shaped metallic piece connected to the forehead, and a pair of metallic wings.

Meanwhile, inside the shell, Lisa looked around everywhere as she saw she was inside a cockpit, with all the buttons and screens one would expect from the cockpit of a giant robot.

"What is this thing?!"

A screen turned on, promptly revealing the answer to the girl: Royal Woodroid X.

"A letter of the alphabet instead of a huge number?"

Lisa then thought about it, and after processing the information, she promptly pushed some buttons and smiled confidently.

"I guess that'll do!"

 ** _Back with Lucyfer and Lynn's fight..._**

Lucyfer swung her scythe repeatedly, sending beam slashes that cut several parts of the buildings, but failed to catch Lynn, whose super speed had increased along with her strength.

It had increased so much, in fact, the girl looked more like she was flashing, or even a hologram, as she approached Lucyfer calmly and then dashed towards her, then back.

And moments before Lucyfer could question what happened, a red circle magically appeared underneath her, and some scribbles appeared inside the circle before Lynn raised her arm, clenched her fist, and caused a large pillar of fire to come out, engulfing the fusion immediately.

"I really don't like the idea of going all out like this against Lucy," Lynn thought as she lowered her fist. "But if this really is a fusion, then destroying it would simply split them back into Lucy and her impostor, right?"

"Lynn!"

The girl turned around and saw Luan, Luna, and the twins approaching her.

"Oh hey guys, I was starting to wonder when were you gonna show up," Lynn remarked. "Listen, there's not much time to explain, so-"

Suddenly, a soul scythe came out of the pillar and nearly hit Lynn, only to narrowly miss her, then miss the twins as they jumped away from it. With that done, the pillar disappeared soon after to show Lucyfer still standing, though with burnt skin that healed back to its pale status as the scythe returned to her.

"How did you manage to heal from that attack?!" the fiery jock exclaimed. "It should've left you a living bacon at bst, a charred skeleton at worst!"

"I'm the Mistress of Death! Only I decide who lives and who dies!" Lucyfer proclaimed. "And you can bet your divine ass that I'll never let a mongrel like you get anywhere close to killing me!"

Lucyfer swung her scythe once more, sending Lynn flying off into a tree, though miraculously, she didn't burn it to a crisp in an instant.

Although, it also could be since the spot in Lynn's body that hit the tree wasn't lit with fire anymore.

" _Crap! I'm starting to lose the fire of the sun, and all I've managed to do was find out this Lucy can heal from severe injuries!_ " Lynn said as she looked at the fires around her body diminishing. " _If I don't do something, the fire will run out before I take out this monstrosity!_ "

Lucyfer snapped her fingers, and the Gashadokuro took a couple steps before it reached the area, with it taking another one with the intent to squash everybody under its foot.

And then Lisa arrived with the Royal Woodroid X, and sent the beast flying back to the square with one punch, before flashing a peace sign at the sisters.

"Hello, everybody!" Lisa said through a loudspeaker. "What did I miss?!"

"Lisa, where did you get that giant robot?!" Luan chirped.

"I'm not quite sure myself, but I may have summoned it after getting a pep talk from Darcy," the scientist answered as she scratched the back of her head. "I'm guessing summoning a giant robot is part of my abilities, since I can't think of any other logical explanation."

"Well, we can use this to our advantage!" Luna pointed at the beast. "Keep that monster occupied!"

Lisa made the giant robot pound its fists. "No need to tell me twice!"

The giant robot ran towards the Gashadokuro and locked hands with it, keeping it on a standstill as both giant entities tried to overpower each other, all while the teams and Lynn continued to attack the giant skeletal entity.

And of course, Lucyfer tried to get in the middle of the barrage, but just as she swung her scythe, a boulder and then a large cluster of crystals struck her, causing her to turn around and see the ones who threw the objects were none other than the twins.

"Don't think we're going to let you do that!" Lana boasted.

"What are you doing?! Don't pick a fight with her!" Claire exclaimed. "You two alone don't stand a chance against her!"

"Yeah, you might have a point there," Lola remarked. "But that's assuming we'll fight her alone in the first place!"

With that said, the twins held hands, and promptly combined into Lala, who was formed with her mace weapon already in her hands.

"You two fused?!" Carlota exclaimed in shock.

"Well, yeah, when things are dire, we gotta give it our all," Lala answered with Lola's voice. "Why don't you try it?"

Claire scratched the back of her head. "I thought that was impossible without a Loud as a partner."

"Hey, it never hurts to try," Lala answered with Lana's voice. "And besides, with a situation such as this, we need to pull off all stops!"

Lala jumped away in that moment, leaving Carlota and Claire to exchange confused looks. And as soon as they reached the battlefield, they caught the attention of Lucyfer.

"So, the children of Lincoln have decided to follow in their father's footsteps, and use desperate tactics to get away with their wrongdoings," she said as she gripped her soul scythe. "I never thought you would go so far as to use fusion."

"You're one to talk!" Lala stated with both twins' voices. "Aren't you a fusion yourself!?"

"I'm the true matriarch of the Lucy caste, the true Duchess of Darkness!" Lucyfer boasted. "I'm the true Lucy! Lucyfer!"

Lala summoned her mace as she replied, "You're nothing but a paradox that's asking to be dealt with!"

And so, the fusions clashed and began to fight, just as Proto-Luna, Proto-Lynn, and Proto-Luan sensed the new clash from afar.

"So, it seems that not only did Lucy decide to copy Lincoln's dirty tricks, but she's fighting another fusion, huh?" Proto-Lynn remarked. "You know, now that I've said that, I believe this madness has gone for far too long."

"Really, I'd say the madness went too far when the Gashadokuro was actually formed," Proto-Luan shrugged. "But you're right; It's time to put an end to everything."

"And what makes you think I'll let you do that?"

The statement was followed by a "Bahahaha!" laugh, sending chills down their spines as they turned to see who had said that.

The owner of the voice was none other than Margo, now sporting blonde hair with a spongy feature, vibrant blue eyes, and a color scheme in her clothes that made it look like she was wearing a white shirt and brown pants.

"It's him!" Proto-Lynn exclaimed in shock.

The three prototypes immediately powered up to a decent level: Their black sclera and colored pupils being proof of that.

"You still remember me, don't you?" "Margo" asked, shrugging and shaking her head as she added. "Then again, I'm pretty hard to forget, dahahaha!"

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Proto-Luan hissed.

"What else?" "Margo" put her hands on her hips. "Getting in your way! I mean, I did it millions of years ago, and if it means getting rid of your master, then I'll do it again!"

Proto-Lynn immediately ran towards the possessed girl and threw a fiery punch, with the girl blocking it easily and barely reacting to it, even when the punch itself sent shock waves and created a ring of fire around them.

"Bahahaha! You're gonna have to try harder than that!"

And as that happened, everybody noticed the struggle between the Gashadokuro and Royal Woodroid X, and promptly began to do what Stella suggested them to do: Get on their knees, and start praying.

" _I don't know if this'll work, but..._ " Ronnie Anne said...

 ** _Back at Leni's Dimension..._**

" _We need you, Lincoln!_ "

The boy, who at this point had been standing still doing nothing, turned around to try and find the source of the voice, just in time for more voices to call out to him:

" _Please, Master Lincoln, turn back to normal!_ "

" _We can't do this without you, Lincoln!_ "

" _If you don't help us, it'll be the end of Royal Woods as we know it!_ "

" _Please, save us!_ "

" _We don't know how long we'll last against Lucy!_ "

More and more voices began crying out to Lincoln in their prayers, pleading for the divine boy to come out of the dimension, and save everybody from the clutches of the divine madwoman.

To go from the destroyer of the world, to the savior of it.

Then, finally, the boy turned to look at the other people in there: Lori constantly emitted electricity to keep herself stable, Leni took deep breaths trying to remain conscious, and Carol hugged Leni, shivering as she frantially tried to figure out what to do.

And that sight was enough to turn Lincoln's eyes and face back to normal.

Then, he looked around to see the cracks all over the dimension.

With that, the boy made a decision, and spread his arms wide as his "winged ring" enveloped around him, and sealed him inside a rainbow sphere, which somehow started absorbing the cracks into itself, healing the dimension back to its original state.

Not only that, but the big hole in Lori's chest was fixed, returning her to normal, and both Leni and Carol were completely healed back to full health.

"What's he doing?" Carol asked.

"He's taking the damage to both us and the dimension, and literally absorbing it into himself," Lori explained as she walked to Leni and Carol's side. "I don't know how he got the idea to do that, though, he shouldn't know how to do that yet..."

And then the dimension started gaining an orange tint, immediately startling Lori.

"Carol, get us out of here!"

The cross-caste nodded and promptly used Omnipresence to teleport herself, Lori, and Leni out of the dimension as it was completely engulfed in an orange light...

 ** _Back with Clyde..._**

The boy took a moment to catch a deep breath and prepare himself to free Calliope, who was still recovering from the intense electric shock from before.

"Okay, Calliope, listen to me," Clyde said as he flew towards the girl. "I know you're still recovering, but you can't stay here."

"I know that, Dad," the lovechild sniffed. "But it hurts... I wanna go home..."

"Trust me, so do I," Clyde said as he grabbed Calliope's hand, causing her to flinch. "So, please, for the sake of both of us, take a deep breath..."

As that happened, the fight with Lucyfer and Lala continued, with the former clearly showing extreme exasperation at the fact the Lola-Lana fusion was still standing.

"How dare you last as long as you have!?" Lucyfer snapped at Lala. "You're nothing but a fusion of a pair of divine weaklings!"

Lucyfer slowly overpowered the fusion. "And you think you can stand against me!?"

The combined goth pushed forward and crashed through several buildings, with Lala taking the brunt of the crashes until she regained her composure, grabbed Lucyfer, and dragged her with her to the ground, hitting it face-first hard enough to leave a small crater.

With that done, Lala jumped off Lucyfer, and as the fused goth slowly got up, Lala moved her arms and created a rocky prison to keep Lucyfer trapped, and also give everybody a little breathing space.

Which lasted all of five seconds before Lucyfer summoned her scythe and cut the prison to pieces.

Lucyfer then swung her soul scythe and cut Lala in half, causing her to explode and turn back into Lola and Lana, who were in their angel forms.

"Oh hey, we didn't turn into our advanced angel or whatever forms," Lana remarked. "Then again, I guess that was only possible because we used our counterparts' powers before-"

"Look out!" Lola exclaimed.

The pink angel flew to Lana and tackled both her and herself away before Lucyfer swung her scythe again, this time managing to cut a large building in half. The twins then flew away as the combined goth swung her scythe again, then started taking deep breaths.

Just as she swung her scythe again, however, the Gashadokuro let out a scream of pain as its forehead began cracking, until Clyde-carrying the spiritual Calliope in his arms-jumped out and flew down to the ground.

With the foundation of the Gashadokuro gone, the skeletal beast stumbled and wobbled around the place, trying to retain its composure as the souls fueling it started flying out of its body.

The beast even tried to reach for the heavens again, but it was stopped when Lisa's giant robot caught its arm, then charged a punch as the toddler proclaimed:

"I think it's time you _rest in peace_!"

And so, with one right hook, the Gashadokuro lost its jaw, and roared as it fell, collapsing into a pile of bodies as soon as it hit the ground, with everybody at the streets dodging the incoming bodies to the best of their abilities.

As for Lucyfer, the girl stood still in a single spot, looking at the rain of bodies as her eyes became completely blank, almost as if she had either been possessed, or reduced to a lifeless shell...

 ** _Inside Lucyfer's Mind..._**

Lucy slowly regained consciousness, with her blurry vision only letting her see a glimpse of the world around her until she rubbed her eyes, and got a clearer look:

She was standing at the edge of a tapestry, showing what looked like her, but with a pair of skeletal wings sprouting from her back, and a black halo hovering above her head, as a dark grey aura enveloped her figure.

As for her surroundings, everything looked almost completely black, with the images of skulls floating around and seemingly looking at her with their empty eyes.

"Ugh, where am I?" the girl asked before she looked around. "What is this place?"

"Hmph, finally you woke up."

Lucy turned around and saw Proto-Lucy fly down to the platform, holding some kind of dark version of the spear Lucy held.

"It seems that no matter what I do, you continue to defy my control," Proto-Lucy growled. "I mean, I took your brother, the lives of many people dear to you, the lives of innocent people, and right now, I took over your body. What more reason could you find to resist? You shouldn't be able to get back up, let alone think!"

"Do you really think taking over my body is as easy as turning into liquid and shoving yourself down my throat?" Lucy replied, trying to keep her composure and assume a stern tone. "You may be able to take a body, but you can never possess a soul!"

Proto-Lucy chukled at the statement, almost as if she already knew such a thing.

"Fine then, guess I'll just have to use this thing to get rid of you once and for all!" Proto-Lucy tightened her grip on the weapon. "And then, the dead will live once more, and I'll once again be the one who decides who lives and who dies!"

Proto-Lucy ran straight for her counterpart and exclaimed:

"I'll fix what Lincoln broke!"

Lucy gritted her teeth and summoned the Gae Bolg, being fully ready to confront her counterpart.

 ** _Back in Royal Woods..._**

Lucyfer let out a titanic roar, sending the bodies flying away and causing the ground to shake violently.

"You ignorant, useless, ungrateful sacks of wasted existence!" she screamed. "Do you know how long it took me to gather the bodies for that thing!? Do you know the number of people who'll never get a second chance at life!?"

Lucyfer summoned the Gae Bolg.

"Well, now you're gonna fucking get it! I'll make sure none of you get an afterlife!"

Lucyfer got ready to throw the spear at someone, but Lynn appeared out of nowhere and threw a fireball at the fusion, getting her attention.

"Camael, huh?! I always knew you'd be the biggest thorn in my ass!" Lucyfer remarked. "Are you ready to cease to exist!? Because as soon as this thing kills you, I'll destroy your very essence!"

Lynn clenched her fists, and took a position that practically screamed one thing:

"Bring it on!"

 ** _Back with "Margo" and the Prototypes..._**

The possessed girl juggled with some water balloons before she threw them at Proto-Luna, Proto-Luan, and Proto-Lynn, all who looked exhausted and were catching their breath as they failed to dodge the balloons.

"Come on, where did your killing intent go?" "Margo" asked as she generated more water balloons. "I thought you wanted to kill me or something!"

"Well, looks like one thing is clear: Lincoln never defeated you for a reason," Proto-Luna remarked. "If only we had a way to channel his power-"

"Oh please, do you really think his power would make a difference?" "Margo" answered with a laugh. "It'll take more than the Protagonist of this world to get rid of me!"

Suddenly, the ground shook violently.

"And speaking of him..."

And then, the entire city was surrounded by an orange tint.

"I think he's decided to come back home! Bahahaha!"

The prototypes, and eventually everybody else, looked up to see the sky becoming cloudier than it had ever been, with the clouds being surrounded by orange electricity as they all came together.

Soon after, the clouds parted and formed a spades shape as the sky went from blue, to an orange color, with blue shards falling down as Lincoln flew down from the spades hole, now with an orange glow emanating from his being.

And not a second later, Lincoln looked straight at Lucyfer and lifted his arm, enveloping the shards in an orange aura before he swung his arm, and shot the shards at the being.

However, while the shards supposedly flew everywhere as they homed in on Lucyfer, none of them actually hurt anybody in the way. And when they were close to doing so, they swiftly dodged the potential target and continued searching for Lucyfer.

"Shit! He's assumed a small percentage of his power!" Proto-Luna exclaimed. "We need to retreat, or else Lori and Leni's plans will end right here, right now!"

Proto-Luan and Proto-Lynn worriedly nodded in agreement, and the trio teleported away, with "Margo" smiling as they looked at the boy hit the ground, and reunited with Clyde and Ronnie Anne.

"Lame-O! You don't know how happy we are that you're here!" Ronnie Anne chirped, giving the divine boy a hug. "But, how did you know we needed your here right now?"

"While I was in another dimension, I heard everybody's prayers from there," Lincoln explained with a smile. "And they made me remember that there were quite a few things to take care of: The zombies, Proto-Lucy, the Gashadokuro-"

"Actually, the Gashadokuro has already been taken care of," Clyde informed the boy, who nodded as Clyde and Ronnie Anne turned to look at Lucyfer as she bathed in shards. "The only thing left to take care of is that strange entity calling herself Lucyfer."

Lincoln raised an eyebrow and turned to look at the girl in question, who was throwing a furious glare to his side.

"Who's that?" Lincoln asked, seemingly unaffected by the glare.

"All we know is that she's somehow a combination between Lucy and her prototype counterpart," Clyde explained. "Your sisters fused in order to fight her back, and even Lynn achieved a higher power, but they didn't amount to much."

"And let's be honest: If a fusion and a powered up Jack-O can't get rid of her," Ronnie Anne shrugged. "The only option we have left is to have you take care of her."

Lincoln nodded in agreement, and then he noticed Calliope. "Who's this girl?"

"She's Calliope, my lovechild with Penelope," Clyde answered, looking at the girl with parental concern as he added, "She was being used as the base to keep the Gashadokuro active, so as soon as I took her out, we got a huge weight off our backs."

"So, she was the thing keeping the Gashadokuro together," Lincoln remarked as he frowned. "Poor thing-"

"Stay away from her!"

The trio turned around and saw the one who shouted that was Penelope, who grabbed her arm as she wobbled her way towards them. Once she got close enough, however, Lincoln aimed his palm at her.

"Wait, what are you-!"

And in the blink of an eye, Penelope was back to full health.

"Penelope, if you can, take Calliope and head as far away from here as possible," Lincoln told the girl. "Things are going to get really hectic, and I don't want anybody to get hurt."

The redhead blinked twice, too dumbfounded to think of what to say.

"Penelope, I know you don't trust me, and after I wasn't there to help with your daughter, I understand if you trust me even less," Lincoln stated. "But your daughter's safe now, and if I don't do something with the evil Lucy now, she could very well kill her again."

The redhead flinched and took a step back, feeling mortified at such a thing happening again. However, before she could say anything in response, Lincoln walked forward to the spot Lucyfer was, and immediately caught the fusion's attention.

"Lincoln!" Lynn exclaimed, reminding everybody that she was still there. "I'm glad to see you, but where did you go?"

"I could ask the same thing to you," the boy answered as he went to the fiery jock's side. "Why do you look like a living fireball?"

"Well, I took a trip to the sun in order to get enough power to defeat Proto-Lucy," the jock explained, before she looked at her slowly diminishing fire. "But I didn't think she'd end up combining with Lucy or something. She heals if the attack doesn't outright destroy her, and my fires are starting to run out."

"I see," Lincoln said before he walked past the jock. "I'll take it from here; You go reunite with Lori and the others, and try to stay alive a little bit longer, 'cause I'm going to need your help in order to end this once and for all."

Lynn raised an eyebrow, confused as to what her brother meant as he got in Lucyfer's path.

"So, the one who started all this misery has finally decided to show his face," Lucyfer mockingly spoke, aiming the Gae Bolg at him as she added, "What are you going to do, "Linky?" Beg for mercy?"

Lincoln cracked his knuckles, and got on a battle stance as he answered:

"I'm going to end this once and for all, and split you back into Lucy and Proto-Lucy! The zombie apocalypse ends right here, right now!"

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Hi everyone, Lincoln here!"

Lucyfer and Lincoln clashed fists, with the former separating from the latter and grabbing her hand as the latter said something, angering her.

"This is it! The final battle has come!"

Inside Lucyfer's mind, Lucy and her prototype counterpart talked a bit before they fought each other, just in time for Lincoln and Lucyfer to resume their fight outside.

"For Lucy, for all those who died, and for everyone who has gotten caught up in this mess!"

Meanwhile, at the church of Lincolnism, Paige and a distressed Mabel met with the lovechildren, with Lemy saying something that caused Mabel to snap and throw an illusionary dragon at him.

"There's no escape for you, Proto-Lucy! The apocalypse ends here, even if I don't deal the finishing blow!"

After that, Paige and Mabel talking a little bit more before they met two familiar figures: The first one was one they met before, Stella.

And the other one was none other than Cristina herself.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Silas was shown standing in between Lucyfer and Lincoln's way, proclaiming something as the fusion tried to order him to move away, to no avail.

" _The Zombie Apocalypse Comes to an End! Lincoln Finally Enters the Battlefield! Lynn's Ultimate Sacrifice?!_ "

Suddenly, two scenes were shown in succession: First being Lincoln unleashing a titanic roar at Lucyfer as shards bombarded the fusion, and then Lucy and Proto-Lucy's reaching its climax as Lucy tanked Proto-Lucy's blast, and flew straight for her.

"Don't miss it!"

Finally, Lori was shown with glowing eyes and thunder surging through her, before showing Lynn hitting Lucyfer with all she got, until she was shown smiling at Lucy as she speared her counterpart...


	42. End of Apocalypse

**And here we are, the final chapter for the Proto-Lucy arc. Took its sweet time getting here, huh?**

 **Truth be told, I was humoring the idea of posting this on Saturday, and post the epilogue on Sunday, but then I thought that would be far too overwhelming for everyone, so we're keeping the Sunday updating schedule.**

 **After this, I'll try to focus on writing the next arc and L-UMA as fast as I can: I'm not going to rush it, don't get me wrong, I plan to remain on my own pace, but I do want to try and get the next arc before something happens that sends this story straight back into hiatus zone.**

 **Ugh, why couldn't I write this story back when the show first premiered?**

 **Anyway, let's answer some reviews:**

 **1) Nobody245:**

 *** That's assuming the corruption cares about spreading. I mean, its original goal was to corrupt the original reality, and it got its wish, what business does it have with the new one?**

 *** Sadly, it also gave the corruption more incentive to... well, corrupt it.**

 **2) Observant Guest:**

 *** Okay then.**

 *** I could denote the beginning and end of the arcs in the authors note, would that help?**

 *** Considering the insane number of characters, that might be a good idea to be honest.**

 *** I can't tell you right away, but I can give you a hint: It's Lily's caste.**

 *** Let's hope not: The universe already had to deal with a ticked off Lincoln, a four-way fight with those girls would be too much!**

 *** "Witchy World," huh? I wouldn't be surprised if a witch appears later down the line now that you've mentioned it.**

 *** Well, even if they had never met before, Cristina is almost always spitting stuff out related to Ronnie Anne, so you can be reassured that she has heard of her.**

 *** I now feel dirty over the fact something about Sonic 06 was heard during the story. I'm still happy though. XD**

 *** By some, who are you talking about? Is there some Discord where people have discussed the story or something?**

 *** Phantom Ganon's theme does sound fitting for Lucyfer's fight with Lala. A battle of fusions, if you will.**

 *** Oh my Lincoln, you actually deciphered it was Spongebob! I didn't think anybody would be able to decipher it was him! And after hearing the music you mentioned, I honestly wonder whether its just as weird or even weirder than the context you used it for. XD**

 *** Yeah, that music definitely fits the idea of the scene: Lincoln is ready to fight, and everybody who's his enemy must run while they still can.**

 *** Before you head into the chapter, may I make two recommendations for music? Regardless of when you decide to listen to them, can you listen to "Credens Justitiam" and "Misterioso"? They're both songs from Madoka Magica, the former from the show and the latter from the movie Rebellion. I think they'll be good to listen to while some of this stuff happens.**

 **3) ChernoMan: I'm going to skip straight to what you said about the chapter. No reason.**

 *** Giggles died for shock factor, yes. Did it hurt Luan, thus fulfilling the other purpose of her death? Absolutely.**

 *** Hey, that's nothing compared to what Lincoln can do.**

 *** As long as someone gets hurt, she's happy. You may panic now.**

 *** Yeah, the powerscaling will drive everyone crazy.**

 *** We better not: There's not enough clarinets in the world to appease such a being!**

 *** Margo's part was off-putting? You've seen immortal insane idiots torture their children, child abuse, a cult venerating Lincoln, his insane immrotal counterpart, the fusion of a prototype and a neophilim, and Lincoln blowing a large hole on Lori's stomach, and Spongemargo being a thing is the thing that disturbs you?**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 42: The Zombie Apocalypse Comes to an End! Lincoln Finally Enters the Battlefield! Lynn's Ultimate Sacrifice?!**

* * *

Back where we left off, Lincoln and Lucyfer rushed towards each other and threw a punch that connected with the other, with enough force to send shock waves.

After that, they exchanged looks: Lucyfer with smug pride, and Lincoln with stern determination.

And then Lucyfer leaned back, and grabbed her fist with visible pain.

"Heh, I guess I should've seen this coming," Lucyfer chuckled. "You always had a hard fist, Lincoln."

The boy lowered his fist and narrowed his eyes. "This is your last warning, Proto-Lucy; split apart and give Lucy back!"

"Hmph, and here I was thinking you finally had the guts to fight back," Lucyfer shook her head and summoned her soul scythe. "How pathetic! You're still a coward, like you've always been!"

The fallen divine being rushed towards Lincoln and swung her scythe... Only for Lincoln to nonchalantly dodge it, then kick her in the face. However, since the attack was a normal, physical one, it didn't take longer than a couple seconds before Lucyfer healed the damage.

"Nice little joke there, brother; Dodging my attack and then hitting me back with a pathetic little kick," Lucyfer said with a smile, only to hiss with a glare next, "Now quit fooling around and accept your punishment!"

Lucyfer swung her scythe again, and Lincoln once again dodged the attack and struck back, this time by punching her in the gut. This process repeated twice before Lucyfer decided to push the boy away using her giant light-dark energy arms, giving her a moment to compose herself.

Lincoln himself quickly recovered as well and regained his footing on the floor, where he dusted himself while he looked at Lucyfer with a stern glare, which the paradoxic being returned.

However, Lincoln immediately noticed somthing peculiar about the combined being, which betrayed their seemingly cool, unshakeable resolve.

"You're scared, aren't you?"

Upon hearing that, Lucyfer flinched as within her, Lucy and Proto-Lucy's fight was brought to a standstill with those very same words, with the latter trying to overpower the former as she processed what he just said.

"Me? Scared? Of what?!" Proto-Lucy snapped, looking at the ground. "I'm the embodiment of fear itself! The idea that I could be afraid of anything is absurd!"

Proto-Lucy slowly gained the strength to slightly push her weapon forward, hissing:

"If anything, the one who should be scared here is _you_ , Ariel! After what I made you go through, after everything you've seen, you shouldn't be able to function!"

Proto-Lucy eventually pushed Lucy slightly away, and began winging her scythe wildly, with Lucy blocking every swing as the prototype began to rant:

"You should be a sobbing wreck! An apathetic nihilist! A living embodiment of depression! You! Should be! _Me_!"

However, one hesitated swing from Proto-Lucy was all Lucy needed to regain the upper hand, sending the prototype flying back with a single strike as she added:

"And yet you dare defy expectations! You dare defy the law of the creator that nothing should ever change! Instead of staying the pathetic occult-obsessed goth, you actually change into _something_ that has emotion! _Something_ that isn't as dark as it looks like! _Something_ that shouldn't exist in the first place!"

However, rather than give a straight answer at the prototype's rant, Lucy took a quick look at her, then stated:

"You're shaking."

The prototype flinched and took a step back as the goth elaborated:

"Ever since the fight with Lincoln started, ever since he entered the battlefield in fact, your legs have been shaking, and your attacks have gotten more erratic."

"It's just... the seething rage inside me!" the prototype hissed, baring her fangs. "I can't feel fear! I'm fear itself! I _cause_ it, I don't _feel_ it!"

"You really don't realize how contradictory that statement is?" Lucy pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "If you can't feel what fear is, then you won't be able to know what it is. And if you don't know what something is, then how are you supposed to know what you're spreading?"

"Hmph, trying to talk as if your words had any meaning, just like Lincoln whenever he tried to trick me," Proto-Lucy growled. "I _know_ what fear is, even if I don't feel it! As long as I can sense it, as long as I know what it is, whether I feel it means absolutely nothing!"

"So, you're essentially saying that, even if you yourself don't feel it, you can sense when somebody is afraid, right?" Lucy inquired, folding her arms. "Is that what you're trying to say?"

"Hmph, finally starting to understand what I'm talking about, huh?" the prototype replied, putting a hand on her hip. "Granted, the fact you only understood it now-"

But then Lucy asked, "Then why do you deny being afraid?"

Proto-Lucy took a step back and gritted her teeth. "B-Because I'm not afraid! I can't be afraid! I'm angry! I'm furious! But I'm not, and can never be, afraid!"

In that moment, Proto-Lucy lunged at her counterpart, causing Lucyfer to resume movement and do the same towards Lincoln.

And as the battle resumed, everybody was at a hill far away from the action, watching the fight as best as they could.

"What's going on?" Lola asked with confusion. "I mean, I know Lincoln's dodging Lucyfer's attacks, but how's he doing it?"

"It's a certain little thing simply called "Omni Instinct," Leni answered, getting everybody's attention. "Essentially, it is, like, the complete domination and mastery over one of the many instincts of a divine being. Omnipresence, Omniscience, Omnipotence, and many more are part of the Omni Instincts I'm talking about."

"What Lincoln is doing now, however, is known as Omniavoidance," Lori added as she folded her arms. "Essentially, thanks to the constant abuse and beatings he got, Lincoln's body literally acts on its own to avoid and dodge every attack he perceives, no matter how fast or strong they are."

Lynn chuckled. "So, thanks to the little roughhousing we did to him, he can now just dodge everything that's thrown at his direction, right?"

Lori and Leni shot glares at Lynn as they answered, first Lori:

"Lincoln had this ability literally long before the roughhousing began, he just didn't activate it until now."

Then Leni:

"And it doesn't mean that the roughhousing was, like, an acceptable thing every single time, no matter how petty the reason."

Lynn frowned and backed away a little. "A-Alright, I got the message."

"And besides, we should think positive," Ronnie Anne remarked as she put her arms behind her head. "With Lame-O here being able to dodge everything the combined Goth-O throws at him, this battle will be a piece of cake!"

"Just because Lincoln can't be hit doesn't mean he can hit back, though," Lori explained. "All his offensive techniques are currently uneer Sincoln's control, who he subdued in the other dimension."

Ronnie Anne's eyes widened. "So, if Lame-O can't be hit, but he can't hit her back, and the combined Goth-O's can't hit him, and she constantly regenerates from normal attacks, then..."

Clyde frowned. "They're stuck in a stalemate."

"So that's what Lincoln meant when he said he was going to need my help to put an end to this," Lynn remarked, narrowing her eyes as she added. "That cursed Sincoln..."

And then Lori turned to Ronnie Anne and Clyde, and ordered, "You two! Go away as fast as you can, so you don't get injured any further!"

Ronnie Anne nodded while Clyde grabbed and lifted the unconscious Penelope in his arms, prompting Lori to tell him:

"I know you want to help Lincoln, and trust me, everybody here wants to do that too. But right now, he and Lynn are the only ones who can do anything about this unexpected combination of Lucies. We'd literally just get in the way if we tried to help."

"I..." Clyde lowered his head. "I understand."

And with that, the duo left the battlefield with everybody else, leaving Lynn, Lori, Leni, and Carol as the only other people besides Lincoln and Lucyfer, who continued to fight in the sky.

 ** _Meanwhile, at the Church of Lincolnism..._**

Paige and Mabel cleaned the hallways of the church of Lincolnism, Mabel doing so while her hair covered her eyes, causing Paige to grow concerned.

"So, Mabel, how are you feeling?" the girl asked with a worried tone. "Are you holding up together just fine?"

Mabel stopped cleaning, and after a second or two of silence, she bluntly answered "No" and continued cleaning.

"Mabel, if you're not feeling well, you can always take a break and I'll find somebody who'll cover for you," Paige said, trying to get the girl to be a little more honest. "I'm sure there's got to be at least one lincolnist around who wouldn't mind helping clean the place-"

"That's not the issue, Paige!" Mabel snapped, shedding tears. "Did you see what the lincolnists did to the sanctuary of the damned!?"

Paige took a step back and frowned. "I... I did-"

"They grabbed those lovechildren, whose only crime was existing, mind you, and they killed them and sent them off to who knows where!" Mabel snapped, pacing back and forth as she continued. "We're lucky neither the biker trio, or Chandler, or anybody we trust was there to witness, or else who knows how they'd react!"

"And what about you?" Paige asked. "How do you feel about it?"

"It's sickening... sickening, and just plain wrong..." Mabel hugged herself. "I mean, I knew the lincolnists who took the bread could go do some despicable things, but nothing to this extent! I almost can't believe _they_ honestly believe this is somthing Lincoln would approve of!"

Then, the sweater-wearing girl realized something:

"And worst of all, the biker girls are out there on a mission with the lovechildren! Who knows what kind of horrors they'll see there!"

And almost as if on cue, the spadesship arrived, catching the duo's attention and making them leave the building to see it arrive in person.

By the time they came out, the lovechildren were on their way out, but without the biker trio by their side...

"About damn time you came back!" Mabel snapped. "Did you have any luck retrieving the lovechildren?!"

Lupa and Lacy exchanged worried looks, then lowered their heads and nodded as Lizy and Leia came out of the ship.

"W-Why are you being so silent?" Mabel asked, only to then realize something. "And more importantly, where are the girls?!"

Lupa and Lacy flinched and looked at the duo with horrified looks, only to turn away a second later.

"Lupa, Lacy, what happened to the biker girls?!" Mabel grabbed Lupa and shook her. "What happened to them?!"

"They died."

Everybody flinched and turned around to see the one who said that was none other than Lemy, who floated towards Mabel, who opened her eyes wide, as he continued:

"Apparently, they were casualties during the mission, alongside several members of the organization, and the lovechildren that were being housed in this holy house of ours."

Then, what Lemy said next transformed Mabel's shock into anger:

"But oh well, at least the twins were retrieved. That's all that matters."

With her anger reaching its boiling point, Mabel's eyes flashed turquoise as she aimed her palm at Lemy and shot an illusionary dragon at him.

The lovechild simply opened his mouth and sung a short melody, disintegrating the dragon in an instant.

"I suggest you don't act so hastily next time, Mabel," Lemy said as he floated past the girl, completely nonchalant about what just happened. "I doubt I'll be as forgiving next time."

Lacy and Lupa walked past her next, with the former saying "I'm sorry" as the twins followed them as well.

However, once the lovechildren had gone inside, Paige was about to move... when she saw Mabel standing in place, looking at the ground.

"Mabel, there's still some cleaning left to be done," the Sister-Lover told the sweater girl as she put a hand on her shoulder. "Or, do you want me to do what I suggested and-"

Mabel slapped Paige's hand away.

"I'm done."

Paige took a step back, and the girl elaborated:

"I'm done, with everything! The sacrifices, the dresses, the prayers, I'm done with anything and everything that has to do with this stupid religion!"

Paige frowned sympathetically. "Mabel..."

"I've seen and dealt with a fair share of horrible stuff, but what I saw today was the breaking point," the sweater girl explained further, making her anger quite clear. "I'm quitting this damn "religion" once and for all! And you know I'm being serious because I uttered a curse word!"

"Well, if you're going to go rogue," Paige smiled and folded her arms. "Then I'm coming with you too."

"But you're a Sister-Lover, someone with actual power in Lincolnism," Mabel pointed out. "Do you really want to throw that away?"

"Please, whatever "power" I have as a Sister-Lover is completely irrelevant when compared to Lincoln or Progenitor Luna's power," Paige rolled her eyes. "I'd rather go away and start all over again than stay in that place any longer."

"Well said, Paige."

The duo turned around to see who said that, which they found out when a heart-shaped portal opened in the sky.

From the portal, the first person to come out was Stella, who landed on her feet as the one who said the statement flew down afterwards, revealing themselves to be none other than Cristina.

Her physical form was the same as her normal self, but with the addition of pink shoulder pads, with a cape connected to them.

SHe also had heart-shaped pupils, and hot pink sclera.

"Cristina," Paige growled, summoning her hammer at once. "Why am I not surprised that the only time you've appeared before us, it's when we're deserting Lincolnism?"

"Because even if it's only for a moment, I couldn't talk to you while you were still connected to Lincolnism," the divine redhead answered. "I mean, honestly, even implying there's something bad or wrong about him can cause those children to just go utterly nuts."

Cristina rolled her eyes. "They're insufferable, as you've probably noticed yourself."

"Indeed we have," Paige sighed. "But regardless, what are you doing here?"

"Seeing as you're deserting Lincolnism, we figured we could try and get you to join Cristinanity, Cristina's own religion," Stella stated with a blunt tone. "We're sure you've heard of it, right?"

Mabel shook her head. "First time I've heard of it."

"Figures, Lincoln's own ignorance plagues his followers, after all," Cristina chuckled. "All you need to know, however, is that you don't have to worry about seeing the same things you've just seen in Cristinanity. Lovechildren are actually seen as people, for one."

"Yeah, sorry, I'm not joining any "religion" anytime soon," Paige answered bluntly. "Heck, if I still know you as well as I used to years ago, I'd rather become an atheist than to pray and worship you."

"Meanwhile, we've barely jut met, and you already want me to join your religion?" Mabel pointed out. "The least you could do is invite me to dinner first."

"I see... well, I guess I can understand your reasons for not joining at once," Cristina lowered her eyelids. "But could you, at the very least, hear a little suggestion from your friendly neighborhood goddess of love?"

The girls exchanged looks, and before they could accept or reject Cristina's question, the girl said:

"Far away from here lies the city of Royal Woods, the living spot for the new generation of gods. In this city, there's a peculiar little girl who's the next in line to be the replacement of the original lover. Her name is-"

"Ronnie Anne!" Paige exclaimed. "I think I've heard and read about her before! Something about being Lincoln's new third-in-command or something!"

"I suppose that's an accurate description of her," Cristina shrugged. "And, just to humor your inner curiosity, the second-in-command is the reincarnation or replacement of the one named Clyde."

Cristina contorted her face with disgust. "Stay away from him, if you don't want him to snitch you to Lincoln."

"Fine then, we'll keep that in mind," Paige sighed.

"Just one more question before you go, though," Mabel interjected. "Can we trust you?"

"Of course not! Your minds can barely comphrehend a being such as me!" Cristina chirped with implied condescendence. "But you can't trust Proto-Luna either, can you? Not after what you saw she permits in her building."

"That's true..." Mabel frowned.

"Alright then, we'll seek refuge in Royal Woods, and we'll look for Ronnie Anne in the meantime," Paige recapped, before she threw a glare at the divine redhead. "But I swear, Cristina, if this turns out to be some sort of trap, I'm going to beat the everloving heck out of you!"

"Swearing in vain already, I see," the redhead chuckled condescendingly. "Very well, let's see if your little threat goes somwhere."

With that said, Cristina vanished, leaving Stella behind.

"Dang it, I hate it when she doesn't teleport me away with her," the girl sighed.

"Does that happen often?" Mabel raised an eyebrow.

"Oh no, just every time she teleports away," Stella scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Sometimes she comes back for me, sometimes she expects me to find my way back to her realm on my own."

A couple seconds passed...

"Looks like this is one of the latter times," she sighed. "Well, I wish you good luck in your new rogue life, or whatever you're going to call it."

"Are you going to keep an eye on us?"

Stella turned to look at the one who asked that: Paige, who was looking at her with a stern look.

"If Cristina desires for me to watch you, then sure, I guess that's something I'll do," Stella shrugged. "But otherwise, I'm not going to bother you. The most I'm going to do is not get in your way, and wish you good luck."

With that said and done, Stella whistled, and summoned a cloud to her side. She got on top of the cloud, and promptly flew away, with Paige and Mabel watching her fly away as the latter bemoaned:

"I wish we hadn't handed her over to Cristina."

"It's too late to angst about that now," Paige stated. "For now, let's head to Royal Woods."

Mabel nodded at the statement, and as the duo held hands, they walked together towards the city, hoping that it would be safe to enter it by now.

 ** _Speaking of Royal Woods..._**

The city continued to be covered in Lincoln's field as shock waves and clashes happened all over the place, all being the result of Lincoln's fight with Lucyfer, with the next one coming from a clash that ended with Lucyfer being plummeted to the ground.

The team continued to watch, though some of them, using Carol's help, left the hills through a portal. So far, the Casagrandes had left, with Carlota and Bobby still remaining.

"Come on, Bobby," Carlota told the guy. "It's your turn to go through the portal."

"I know..." Bobby scratched the back of his head. "But I feel seriously uncomfortable with leaving Ronnie Anne here while the fight is still on-going."

"The literal god of this world is here, and he's basically pummeling the big bad fusion with ease, not to mention we're far away from danger, and yet you still feel uncomfortable leaving Ronalda behind?" Carlota pointed out sternly. "Just when did you become such a worrywart?"

After a few seconds, everybody turned their attention to Lori and looked at her with deadpan looks, causing the oldest sister to exclaim:

"Why are you looking at me?!"

"Well, he is your "boyfriend," Leni pointed out. "There's a chance he, like, got this anxious, worrysome nature from you."

"I really don't like the fact you literally put air quotes when you said boyfriend," Lori threw an exasperated look at Leni, then turned to the guy with a reassuring one. "But anyway, Bobby, you got nothing to worry about. I'll make sure Ronnie Anne stays out of danger."

Bobby folded his arms and sternly answered, "You better do, 'cause if you don't, what's between us is over!"

Lori flinched and took a step back. "Whoa, hold your horses, Bobby! Don't you think you're taking it a little too far?!"

"Well, my life _is_ in danger," Ronnie Anne shrugged.

"You shush!" Lori snapped at the tomboy, before she turned back to Bobby and sighed, "Listen, Ronnie Anne's going to be safe here. I'll make sure of it."

When the boy seemed to become hesitant once more, Carlota rolled her eyes and kicked him into the portal, with her and Claire jumping into it soon after. With that done, Carol closed the portal, and collapsed on the ground, with Leni immediately running to her side and using her healing powers on her.

"I'll heal Carol, and in about five minutes, she'll be able to open another portal so more people can get out," Leni explained, before she turned to face Clyde. "How is, like, Lincoln and Lucyfer's fight going?"

"They're still in a stalemate," Clyde remarked. "However-"

"It's pretty cool, right?"

Everybody turned around and saw the possessed Margo standing on top of a piece of debris, watching the fight between Lucyfer and Lincoln with a smile on her face. Then, as she turned to look at the team, she added:

"Even if they're stuck in a stalemate, they're still fighting at a level high above everybody else. Now, the gothic one's so strong because she's just a "fusion" between two different versions of the one known as Lucy."

Margo jumped down and continued:

"But the boy known as Lincoln is fighting with his own power against a threat nobody else could even hope to take on. This, is the power he wields since the beginning of this universe."

"Margo?" Polly asked. "Is that you?"

Margo chuckled. "Look into my eyes and get your answer."

Polly obliged, and she took a cople seconds to look straight into "Margo"'s eyes, though this didn't give her any particular answer besides:

"The body I'm talking with is Margo's, but the voice and personality certainly isn't."

"You're quite correct!" "Margo" answered with a childish laugh. "But uh, you really don't know who I am?"

"You're some kind of mysterious being who's taking control of Margo's body," Tabby answered. "Does that count?"

"Margo" frowned, almost as if they were disappointed at the answer. Then, they turned to Lori and Leni, and as soon as they caught their attention, they asked:

"You guys still remember me, right?"

Lori and Leni's eyes sprung wide open and they shouted:

"Your Majesty!"

The duo then ran up to the possessed girl and bowed down, with "Margo" being oblivious to their nervous attitudes.

"Aw, you do remember me!" "Margo" chirped with a "Bahahaha!" laugh.

"Okay, so whoever this is, it's somebody that even Lori and Leni fear?!" Luna asked, gripping and taking out her flame sword. "Everybody, be on your toes!"

"Huh? L-Luna, put that weapon down! The person over here isn't an enemy!" Lori said upon noticing Luna's stance. "In fact, it's their job to try and help keep the omniverse safe!"

"Wha-I hope you understand that's quite a statement to make!" Sam snapped, walking towards the eldest sisters as she looked at "Margo." "I mean, how can this be the universe's protector? Aren't you and your sisters supposed to do that?"

"We are, but only of this single dimension, and its associated multiverse," Lori explained. "The being possessing Margo, however, literally watches over the entirety of the existence housing our multiverse."

The team turned to look at the being, who flashed a toothy grin and a peace sign, completely oblivious to the fact the team had no idea how to think of this...

 ** _Meanwhile, in the Bowels of Lincolnism..._**

Proto-Lynn, Proto-Luna, and Proto-Luan resided in a room deep in the bowels of the church, with each of them healing their injuries in their own specific ways.

Proto-Lynn had submerged most of her body in boiling hot lava, with the lava somehow healing and covering her injuries from the fight.

Proto-Luna surrounded both herself, and another being inside a soundproof shield, while the being worked on her ears... at least, going by the shadowy figures representing the.

Proto-Luan outright hunched on the ground, with several small puppets working together to stitch her up.

And in the middle of this, Proto-Lynn clenched her first and slammed it down the hot liquid.

"I made a promise with Lucy, she broke it, and now I'm stuck here, having to recover from the fight with that stupid outer entity. And worst of all, Lincoln's going to enjoy getting all the glory of defeating Lucy himself!"

"It doesn't have to be just him."

Proto-Lynn turned around, and saw Proto-Luan staring at her as she talked through one of the marionettes fixing her body:

"I decided to make some... modifications to Liby, just in case this situation happened."

This caught Proto-Lynn's attention. "Keep going."

However, as the duo talked about the plan, the only other person around to listen to them, Proto-Luna, was instead focused on her talk with the being, who turned out to be Cristina.

"So, what you're basically telling me, is that two Lincolnists have abandoned my religion thanks to Lucy's followers' little stunt," the prototype rockstar asked sternly. "And one of them isn't just a regular lincolnist, but Paige, one of the Sister-Lovers, aka one of Lincoln's former harem members?"

"Yes, Mother Luna," Cristina answered with a nod. "That's exactly what happened."

"Alright, it seems my hearing is fine, as it should be," Proto-Luna looked elsewhere and scratched her chin. "However, we can't leave her and her friend unsupervised. They might start up a religion demonizing Lincoln, or worse, outright form a rebellion against us."

"There are several lincolnists living in Royal Woods, Your Loudness," Cristina calmly pointed out. "I'm pretty certain that, if anything were to happen, they'd find them ot immediately."

"You're putting far too little faith in Paige, like usual," Proto-Luna rolled her eyes. "Still, I'll humor your suggestion and idly wait for them to make themselves known. You may leave now."

Cristina nodded, and teleported out of the, leaving the prototype alone to take a deep breath, and rest for the moment, thinking:

" _We'll let you rest for now, Neo-Lincoln. But once your other half comes out, we'll be right there, ready to kill him._ "

Proto-Luna's eyes glew purple.

" _And then, you'll be next!_ "

 ** _Back in Royal Woods..._**

More people had gone through Carol's portal, in particular the members of the organization and thus the Loud parents, and Rocky, leaving behind the remaining Sadie Hawkins dates, Clyde, Ronnie Anne, Penelope, Chandler, Calliope, and the remaining Loud sisters.

Oh, and "Margo" too.

As the fight continued, and everybody tried to just accept the fact the being controlling Margo just... existed, Chandler immediately pointed out:

"By the way, has anybody noticed something seems off? "Like, for example, the fact that there's no trace of the fake Luna, Luan, and Lynn around?"

"Now that you mention it, I did see my counterpart after I returned from the sun," Lynn answered, scratching her fiery head. "Where could she have gone to, though?"

"They ran away."

Everybody turned around to "Margo," who clarified:

"While you were busy with the giant skeleton, I fought those fakers you're talking about, and they escaped once Lincoln entered the picture."

"W-W-W-What?!" Carol exclaimed, taking a step back. "You mean to tell me you faced off against Proto-Luna, Proto-Luan, and Proto-Lynn on your own, and you managed to fight them until Lincoln came and scared them away?!"

"Margo" nodded twice.

"That's impossible!" Lana exclaimed, with her twin nodding in agreement. "Lola and I had to work together to face off against two progenitors! How is it possible that you could face three of them at once?!"

"We already told you, the one possessing Margo is the emperor of the multiverse holding our universe," Lori said, folding her arms sternly. "There's no way three of the progenitors would be enough to take him out."

"So he's a guy?" Rita inquired.

"That's the least of our concerns right now," "Margo" answered, suddenly remembering something. "Especially for you, Rita and Lynn Sr."

Lynn Sr. raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"While you were away, a group of lincolnists invaded your workplace and trashed it," "Margo" bluntly answered, shocking the parents. "If you don't believe me, ask Leni to clarify."

The fashionista promptly sensed the organization building, because of course she could do that, and what she found brought a frown to her face.

"Only survivors I could find were Pop Pop and... Flip."

"Then we have to go back!" Mrs. Johnson stated.

"I wouldn't be so hasty if I were you," "Margo" said. "You should wait until the orange tint this entire place is bathing in goes away."

"And why's that?" Carol asked.

"I guess the one with control over portals wouldn't understand, but we're currently sealed inside Lincoln's field," "Margo" explained. "While with Carol's power here, you can leave it, anybody else who tries to do it will be on the receiving end of a minuscule percentage of Lincoln's full power."

"So, it's similar to what my counterpart did at Atlantis," Lola remarked. "But besides that, how bad is it?"

"If it were any of you instead of Lincoln, then yeah, it wouldn't be so bad," "Margo" frowned. "But since this is Lincoln we're talking about, we're talking about absolute crippling damage at best, total annihilation at worst."

"With just a minuscule fraction of Lame-O's power?!" Ronnie Anne shouted.

"Wait a minute, if that's the case, why doesn't he just throw Lucyfer into the field, then?" Clyde inquired, scratching his chin and looking up. "She can regenerate from nearly anything, right? Surely she could be hurt just enough to split back into Proto-Lucy and Lucy, right?"

"Oh, if only that was the way things worked," Lori bemoaned. "Let's keep watching their fight, and you'll literally see what I mean."

Everybody went back to the fight, where things were still practically in Lincoln's favor: He kept dodging every attack from Lucyfer, while throwing an attack of his own, which the combined being quickly healed, to his unending frustration.

" _This regeneration is seriously annoying me. Maybe there's something I can do to cancel it?_ "

With that in mind, an idea formed, and next time Lincoln had a chance to attack, he did so putting the barest minimum of effort into it. This took the form of a kick to the arm.

The kick not only dislocated Lucyfer's shoulder, but sent the combined goth several feet away, crashing into a wall in the process.

Once she came out of there and returned to the field, however, the shoulder was still dislocated, which she noticed as Lincoln realized:

"I see, so no matter what you do, every attack I use with the smallest amount of effort, will never heal, right?"

Lucyfer flinched, and gritted her teeth as she forcefully put her broken arm back together, hissing:

"Don't be ridiculous! Of course I can heal from it! I can heal from anything! But you..."

The combined goth smirked. "I wonder if you'll be able to heal from this!"

The fusion flew up and held her arms high, with the recently-"fixed" hand shaking as they gathered energy from all around the place, in an action that wounded up being far too familiar in Maggie's eyes.

"W-Wait a minute," the goth remarked as Sam went to her side. "D-Don't tell me she's-"

"Yeah, there's no way it could be anything else," Sam said with a concerned look. "She's using Maggie's "Sphere of Despair" technique."

"There's something different about this one, though," Tabby remarked, scratching her chin. "Or at the very least, it doesn't have the same feel as Maggie's version."

"It isn't: Maggie's sphere concentrated her own despair, and I think also the despair of those around her, but it's mostly powered by her own despair," Sam explained, folding her arms. "This sphere, however, seem to be gathering despair from all around the world, with no particular main source."

Out of everyone, Luan looked at the sphere with the most worry, since it had currently grown to be twice the size of Maggie's version. And from this shot, the girl folded her arms and pondered out loud:

"So, if that giant thing is formed out of despair, sadness, and other negative emotions, then where exactly is she getting all of that energy from?"

"Behold! The concentration of the crushed hopes and dreams of every child you've cursed! The very despair that fills an ocean that will swallow an entire dimension one day! Take this, the True Edgy Sphere of Despair!"

As a random person shouted "Ow! The true edge!" from nowhere, the fused goth maliciously added:

"Do you see the pain you've caused now, brother? The only reason this sphere is as big as it is, is because of all the pain you've caused everyone; Friends, family, and lovers alike, for billions of years! And it shall be this despair, that will destroy you, and all of Royal Woods!"

The combined goth threw the giant sphere at the boy, who stood his ground as he calmly looked at the sphere, and he extended his hand forward.

Not only did he manage to hold the sphere back with that hand, but also slowly lower its size until it had the size of a marble, just small enough to crush it with his fist.

However, instead of being furious at this fact, Lucyfer simply grinned maliciously, getting a confused eyebrow from the boy.

And inside of Lucyfer, Proto-Lucy and Lucy watched through her eyes at the confused boy, while Proto-Lucy cackled in what seemed to be happening.

"See that, Lucille? Your own brother crushed the already-crushed hopes and dreams of the people he killed!" Proto-Lucy stated, flashing a sadistic smile. "That has to be undeniable proof that he's the bad guy in all of this! He ruined everything, just as he once did!"

"What does that have to do with the destruction of the original reality?" Lucy bluntly asked, unconvinced by her counterpart's words.

"Hmph, you think I'm talking about that genocide?" Proto-Lucy scoffed. "Why would I put focus on something that's practically common knowledge, when I could focus on the thing that really hurt everybody?"

Lucy raised an eyebrow at first, but she quickly shrugged off the confusion and continued to attack her counterpart, while Lucyfer in the real world laughed out loud.

"What's so funny?" Lincoln asked.

"The fact that you just make everything worse so naturally!" the fused goth answered. "I mean seriously, even if they were broken, the hopes and dreams the sphere was made from could still be healed somewhat. But instead, you annihilated them!"

Lincoln tilted his head. "Who says I did that?"

Lucyfer raised an eyebrow, and the boy opened his palm, revealing a single speck left from the sphere, which he threw in the air and blew off, splitting it into several copies of itself, until the sky was filled with them.

It almost looked like it was snowing, even.

And as soon as the little specks hit the ground, any damage done to the surrounding area was fixed: From little cracks sealing themselves, to entire structures reforming in an instant, which were things that once again blew Lucyfer's mind, and infuriated her to no end.

Meanwhile, in another part of the city, a portal opened and from there came out Xynn, Xaiku, and Xucy, the last one using the middle one as a platform as she looked around.

"Took this thing long enough to work," Xucy growled before she jumped off Xaiku's back. "Now then, let's find my eyes and get out of here."

"Speaking of which, Your Majesty," Xynn remarked, getting her sister's attention. "Don't you think we could've traveled to this dimension when the boy asked for our help? Especially now that we've seen how long that transporter takes to charge?"

"There was no way to tell how long it would take for us to travel to this dimension beforehand," Xucy stated. "Besides, it was his master's idiotic idea to play around with a being more powerful than her that the stuff happened. And besides, everybody seemed to be able to hold that thing back, our help wasn't required."

Before she could continue with her rant, a speck of the stuff Lincoln created hit Xucy on the shoulder, and melted it down to the bone, with Xucy backing away into Xaiku's arms as the trio looked at the snowing area.

"See?! I told you we should've come here earlier when we could!" Xynn snapped. "Now it's literally raining death upon us!"

Xucy, however, was having none of Xynn's scolding. "Shut up and help me find my eyes!"

And as the interdimensional weirdos began their search, Lucyfer finally spoke again, sounding utterly dumbfounded:

"W-What did you do?! What the hell is this?!"

"I took the bit of hope that was left in your sphere, and I renewed it before spreading it across the city," Lincoln calmly explained with a deadpan tone. "Then again, being an entity that only focuses on the bad things, I don't expect you to understand-"

"No, you're the one who doesn't understand!" Lucyfer spat, gripping her scythe tightly. "If you really think this'll be enough to "forgive and forget" your crimes, then you might as well drop dead right now!"

With that said, Lucyfer flew towards Lincoln, ready to hack him to bits, or at least try to...

Until a certain person appeared out of nowhere and stood in the way, forcing Lucyfer to stop in her tracks as everybody looked shocked at the person in question.

It was Silas, spreading his arms wide, and looking at the combined goth with a determined glare.

"Silas?!" Lucyfer exclaimed with pure shock, only to quickly calm down. "Huh, I was wondering where the hell you had gone off since the Gashadokuro emerged."

"Mother Lucy... no, whoever you are! It's time to put a stop to this!" Silas stated. "There's no point in continuing this fight! Just let it go!"

"Silas, have you forgotten all the proof I've shown you of Lincoln's true character?" Lucyfer asked, before she pointed her scythe at the boy in question. "The guy you're protecting right now, the guy you're preventing me from killing in this very moment, is the sole reason everything's gone as bad as it is. The sole reason every existence is cursed to suck, from beginning to end, is all because of him!"

"Listen... you! If you keep fighting like this, if you don't apologize and make amends quickly, Lincoln's going to destroy you!" Silas added, still standing his ground. "And I don't even need to gauge his power to know that he could easily destroy you!"

"Silas..." Lincoln remarked.

"So please, while he's still his all-forgiving, merciful self," Silas stated. "Apologize for everything, and at least try to fix what can be fixed right now!"

Lucyfer remained silent for a moment, then snickered.

"Forgiveness? What does he know about forgiveness?"

Then, she held her weapon tightly, as her arm shook.

"Mercy? What does he know about mercy?"

Lucyfer swung her scythe once more as she proclaimed:

"The only thing this bastard knows, is pure, undiluted hedonism! So, I'm giving you one last warning, Silas! Step out of the way before I take you out myself!"

"Silas, I don't think she's bluffing," Lincoln told the gothic boy. "You said it yourself: I can take care of her on my own. You don't have to worry about this, get out before you get hurt!"

"No, Lincoln, I do have to worry about this," Silas answered as he turned to face "Because ever since this started, I have done nothing to help the situation, all I've done is make it worse: Gather the Sadie Hawkins dates so they could be tortured by Progenitor Luan, watch as the Gashadokuro is created using the bodies of several innocent people, and failing to join the effort to fight it, or at least get help somehow."

Silas lowered his head in shame as he added:

"Not only that, but the girl that I did all of this for, is trapped inside some kind of amalgamation, whose mere existence feels wrong."

Then, he narrowed his eyes with determination.

"Which is why, even if I can't do anything against her, I know one thing for certain."

The boy faced Lucyfer back, and stated:

"I'm not moving!"

"It seems you've forgotten your place!" Lucyfer hissed. "As a member of my caste, and a guy, you must follow my every order without question! And I order you to move aside!"

"You're neither Mother Lucy, nor the Lucy I know and care about!" Silas stated. "So as far as I'm concerned, your orders mean nothing to me!"

Seeing the boy wasn't going to listen to her, the combined being got an idea.

"Hmph, what was it that you said a long time ago, dear brother?" Lucyfer asked, scratching her chin. "Oh, I know!"

Then, she flashed a smirk. "They're beneath us, so they mean nothing?"

Without warning, Lincoln felt a sharp pain in his head, and he grabbed it as a familiar voice hissed:

" _They're beneath us! All of them!_ "

" _Why should we help those who won't help us in return!?_ "

" _I gave them what they asked! I gave them everything they prayed for! And this is how they repaid it!?_ "

" _If their only concept of paying back our endless generosity is by acting like that, then annihilation is the only thing they deserve!_ "

"S-Sincoln?!" Lincoln asked as orange electricity surged through him. "W-What is he-"

Suddenly, an electric shock consumed the boy in his entirety, with the guy screaming in pain as the voices continued repeating those same sentences, and everybody from far away watched in horror.

"Lame-O!" Ronnie Anne shouted before she tried to head towards the boy, only to be stopped by Lori. "Let me go! We need to help him!"

"There's literally nothing we can do to help him!" Lori sternly stated.

"Because we _can't_ help, or because you _refuse_ to help!?" the tomboy snapped.

Lori flinched, but kept her grip on the tomboy straight as Clyde asked in a panic:

"Lori, what's going on?! What's happening to Lincoln?!"

"It appears that Lucyfer's statement, like, clicked with Sincoln's own existence inside Lincoln," Leni answered, folding her arms and shaking her head. "And he's currently trying to get Lincoln to agree with his view on both the protophilim and neophilim."

"Wait, that's Sincoln's doing?!" Carol exclaimed in shock. "I thought he drove him away?!"

"He scared him long enough to let him use his powers against Lucyfer," Lori explained. "But it seems that, as soon as Lucyfer reminded him of those words, Sincoln literally found an opening to "punish" Lincoln for what he did in Leni's dimension."

Even with that said, "Margo" jumped high and went to Lincoln's side, with Lori and Leni barley being able to say "Your Majesty, wait!" before the girl reached Lincoln and tried to touch him, only for the electricity to shock and send them right back to the team.

"Yep, it seems that this Sincoln's negativity is far too strong for my positivity," "Margo" said as they stood up. "Nobody's going to be able to get close to him unless Sincoln stops the punishment, or we encounter a positivity greater than my own."

And as if that wasn't enough, Silas eventually caved in and tried to help the agonizing Lincoln, only for Lucyfer to cease the opportunity to literally stab him in the back, with the boy spitting out blood from his mouth as the bladed point of Lucyfer's spear pierced his stomach, and came out the other end, covered in the boy's blood.

The combined goth then took out the spear, and smirked as Silas got on his knees and collapsed on the ground, wherein the fused entity laughed maniacally as she started stabbing the boy repeatedly, with him shedding a tear as the light in his eyes slowly vanished.

"S-Stop it!" Lincoln screamed as the lighting shocks intensified. "He's... already... dead!"

" _Of course he is! He's a mortal! Imperfect! Incorrigible! Incapable of appreciating the effort the gods do on his behalf!_ " Sincoln hissed to Lincoln as the boy continued to try and break free from his hold. " _A being like him doesn't deserve to live, only the perfect beings must live in the perfect world! That's how the maker chose it to be!_ "

And then, just to make sure nobody tried to interrupt her, Lucyfer glared at the team far away and caused giant arms of both light and dark energy to come out of the ground and grab everybody as tightly as possible, trapping them and forcing them to share Lincoln's agony.

"Hey, stop crying, "Lincoln," Lucyfer told the boy as she walked to Silas' corpse, and put her foot on top of his head. "It's as you said yourself so long ago: Those who defy the gods..."

Lucyfer raised her foot.

"Don't deserve to live!"

One stomp later, what was one Silas' head turned into a mash of gooey gore and viscera, with Lincoln's lighting stopping and dropping him on the ground, having made him too tired to stand back up.

"He's yet another child that dies because of your fault, Lincoln," Lucyfer scoffed as she walked to the exhausted god. "He stood his ground for you, and yet all you did was stand there and watch him die!"

The combined goth kicked the boy and put her foot on top of his head as she continued:

"You were given the powers of the creator himself, and yet you barely even used them!

She stomped the boy's stomach.

"He gave you omnipresence, but you were never around when you were needed the most!"

Then, the chest.

"He gave you omniscience, but in the end, you never knew anything, and when you did, it was already too late for you to use that wisdom!"

Then, she lifted him by the neck of his shirt, and looked at him directly in the eye.

"He gave you omnipotence, and yet you remained the weakest god in all of the cosmos!"

She headbutted him, sending him flying away until he crashed into a wall, wherein she dashed, kneed him in the gut and said:

"And worst of all, he gave you Omnibenevolence, only for you to become the most malicious entity in the entire Loudverse!"

And inside Lucyfer, Proto-Lucy looked through her eyes with a feeling of satisfaction, hile Lucy's arm shivered, and she held her weapon tightly.

"You... killed him..."

Lucy's eyes slowly turned red.

"You... killed him!"

"Oh please, don't make it seem it was my fault: The only reason he even died is because Lincoln put that curse on everyone," Proto-Lucy sternly answered as she turned to face Lucy. "He hated the idea of there being other eternal beings besides him and his sisters, that he chose to force everybody else to die at his whim!"

"What are you bullshitting me about now!?" the enraged Lucy snapped.

"Let me tell you a little story that starts all the way back in the original reality..."

 ** _Flashback..._**

 _Proto-Lucy's little story, depicted in black, white, and grey colors, started with several protophilim, just standing around, existing._

 _"Back in the original reality, the concept of "aging" and "growing old" was practically a myth. Once something was created, it would stay in that state, ungrowing, unaging. And that was the way the maker chose it to be."_

 _Then they were joined by practically the rest of the world, even the proto-sisters._

 _"The gods, the protophilim, the animals, the objects, everything in the original reality followed this philosophy."_

 _Then, everybody but the progenitors literally burned to ashes, which were blown away._

 _"The only beings capable of changing things were the gods themselves, and even then, they couldn't change themselves."_

 _And then, the Proto-Sisters burned away, leaving only Proto-Lincoln by his lonesome._

 _"But Lincoln, in his infinite malevolence, desired for things to change."_

 _The scene changed, showing Proto-Lincoln in front of some malformed entities._

 _"He decided to practice with a group of malformed children, who, he said, were "cursed to live in perpetual agony," which was only a natural punishment for their audacious decision to not be born to the gods whims."_

 _The boy aimed his palm towards them, and some energy was absorbed into them._

 _"So, he took away their immortality, because yes, he could do that, and he killed them."_

 _The boy swung the energy like a sword, and the malformed entities stopped moving._

 _"And they died. And they didn't come back from the dead: They were essentially dead for good."_

 _Another change saw Proto-Lucy looked particularly mortified, having witnessed what Proto-Lincoln had done._

 _"Your prototype, in hopes of redeeming her brother's horrifying sin, began to work on a project to reach the heavens on her own, and give those who Lincoln had unjustly killed a second chance at life."_

 _Proto-Lucy walked to her room, and opened a peculiar book: The Ars Loudia._

 _"Unfortunately, the only way she could do so, was by creating a giant monster made of dead bodies. Thus, creating the Gashadokuro."_

 _One cut later, Proto-Lincoln stood nearby Proto-Lucy, a bloodied energy sword forming from his hands as the prototype goth covered her eyes, with blood coming out of there._

 _"But when Lincoln found out, he did yet another unforgivable sin: He injured one of his own sisters, whose only crime was to try and fix his horrible mistake."_

 _Next, a flash of white filled the entire screen..._

 _"And then, to further bring pain and agony to the realm, he destroyed the original reality next, killing untold protophilim to begin anew."_

 _Until it turned into a very dark, barren vision of the world, with bodies rising from the ground, crying in pain._

 _"However, his mission to kill them had failed: Their bodies refused to decompose, and they were completely motionless, devoid of the life that once made them move."_

 _Proto-Lincoln watched the bodies walking towards him, and he reached for the spades in his chest._

 _"And so, once he had created the land, he decided to place those bodies underneath it, filling the ground that was supposed to be sacred, with undeniable proof of his horrendous acts."_

 _The spades symbol glew, and the boy took out a shovel from there as the vision ended._

 ** _Back in the Present..._**

"Now, after what I just told you, Lucille, tell me," Proto-Lucy smirked. "Do you still think your brother's a good guy?"

Lucy took several deep breaths, and calmed down enough for her eyes to turn back to normal as she answered:

"I don't see the problem."

Proto-Lucy's eyes widened. "W-What are you talking about?"

"You said that everything remained the same in the original reality. The people, the objects, even the things that could change, like the gods, mostly stayed the same," Lucy bluntly recapped, before she tilted her head, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "But what kind of meaning does a life that never ends have?"

"Y-You're mad! Crazy beyond repair!" Proto-Lucy exclaimed, taking a step in apparent fear. "Why would you prefer a short existence with limited influence, to an eternal existence!?"

Lucy smirked. "So, that's the reason, huh?"

Proto-Lucy looked confused, until the goth explained:

"You're not angry at the fact immortality was taken away from everyone because it was unfair, or unjust, or whatever. You're angry about that because, with their immortality gone, anybody could die from anything, regardless of whether you were aware of it, the cause of it, or not."

Proto-Lucy gritted her teeth. "..."

"If people can die from anything, this means everything else could kill them, and you wouldn't get the pleasure of being the one to do it yourself," Lucy continued, her smirk growing smug as the prototype started sweating. "And like you said, the gods, though able to change, barely did. By that logic, once you lost your job as the grim reaper, there would be little to nothing else for you to do after the change."

The prototype finally snapped, "What are you bullshitting me about now!?"

"You're not angry at the idea of mortality because it provides unjust death and misery!" Lucy proclaimed, her smirk turning into a frown. "You're angry because you're no longer the one who decides who lives and who dies!"

"Q-Quiet! You're mad! Insane! You're uttering nothing but garbage!" Proto-Lucy snapped. "And besides, even if that was the case, do you really think this is acceptable!?"

Lucy's answer was blunt:

"Yes."

And in that very moment, both Proto-Lucy's mind and the scenery around them cracked, with the pieces slowly falling down as she spoke:

"T-This can't be possible! You can't possibly be okay with the idea of your children... our children... being stripped away from eternal life! Surely, even you fear death, right? Even you understand why I'm angry, right?! Even you will admit Lincoln cursed everyone with mortality, right!?"

"You're wrong; Lincoln didn't curse anybody with mortality, and he certainly didn't take away their immortality as punishment!" Lucy proclaimed, her aura growing more intense. "You see, only mortals understand satisfaction; their shorter lives means that they enjoy the present, and can feel excited for what the future holds in store! The fact they eventually die makes them value their current actions even more!"

Lucy clenched her fist and waved her arm as she continued:

"Don't you see? The fact we die, is what gives meaning to our lives!"

Then, she raised her fist.

"That, is why Lincoln took away immortality from the neophilim; he wanted to make their lives meaningful! He wanted to make everyone's lives meaningful!"

Finally, the aura engulfed Lucy, whose form slowly began to change as the aura then split off from her, and created a spear-scythe hybrid, with a Lucy-like figure then splitting off from that form.

As for Lucy herself, once her new form was visible, her changes were slightly minor: She had a glowing spades symbol on her clothes, with the same pattern appearing on the top of her hair, with a pair of skeletin wings sprouting from her back, shapped like a pair of skulls.

And for the prototype, this was the last straw, as shown by her eyes glowing an intense golden color as she snapped:

"Enough of this! I've tried to be reasonable, I've tried to talk things out, I even tried to give you the choice to join me, and just like Lincoln, nothing has worked! All that I have left to try, is brute force!"

With that said, the Lucies clashed once more, and Lucyfer stated:

"Anyhow, it's time to put you out of everyone's misery!"

Just as Lucyfer swung her scythe down, however, Lincoln flashed a glowing glare that not only split the scythe in half, but caused the entire field to shake violently as the boy stood up, looked strictly at Lucyfer...

Then unleashed a titanic, agonizing, omnipotent scream.

Lori and Leni promptly generated a shield around everybody to cover their ears, but Lincoln's scream could still be heard even within the soundproof confinements of the shield.

Not only that, but the field itself started to crack, with any pieces that fell down immediately reforming into projectiles that homed in on Lucyfer, even as she moved away to try dodge them.

At first, it was only a few projectiles at a time, but then then entire field shattered, and not even a second passed before the fused goth was facing a literal rain of projectiles, all directed strictly at her as Lincoln continued screaming...

Until finally, he stopped, and collapsed.

The projectiles vanished afterward, but this failed to bring relief to Lucyfer, who now had shards of the field literally stuck all over her body.

"You... you little shit!" the combined being snapped as she reached for one of the shards. "Can't you do anything that isn't a dirty trick!?"

As soon as the neo-prototype grabbed one of the shards, though, the very skin on her hands and gloves burned away, causing her to yelp in pain before she noticed somthing that sent a shiver down her spine:

The hand wasn't healing.

In fact, she herself wasn't healing in the slightest.

And then, the arms holding everybody hostage glitched out and dissipated, with Lucyfer being completely unable to regenerate them.

"W-What is this?!" Lucyfer asked, fear showering her tone. "What did you do!? _What the hell did you do?!_ "

But Lincoln didn't respond, for he was not conscious.

And as the combined goth panicked, Clyde, Penelope, Luan, and Lynn realized something, and the boy promptly handed the lovechild to Ronnie Anne as he said:

"Ronnie Anne, keep Calliope safe!"

"What?!" the tomboy exclaimed. "Just what are you planning to do, Nerd-O?!"

"Isn't it obvious?! Now's our time to attack her!" Luan stated. "She can't heal as long as she has those shards in her body, so any damage we deal to her will actually last!"

"And as a bonafide Lola caste member, I can guarantee you that those things aren't going to come out so easily!" Penelope boasted. "Granted, the fact they came from the god of this world might make it obvious, but still."

"This is the moment we've been waiting for!" Lynn proclaimed, clenching her fist as it was engulfed in flame once more. "It's time to put an end to this, once and for all!"

The remaining sisters besides Lori and Leni nodded in agreement, and they promptly joined the team and flew towards the battlefield, leaving behind the mentor trio, "Margo," Ronnie Anne, Chandler, and Calliope.

"Don't worry, Ronalda."

The tomboy turned to face Chandler, who walked to her side and put a and on her shoulder as he said:

"Clyde knows what he's doing."

Ronnie Anne, however, remained concerned as she looked at the field and said:

"I hope so."

Back with the team, they all ran after Lucyfer, who barely managed to notice them before Luan got up in their face and... blew a raspberry at her, angering the fusion into trying to skewer her alive.

This prompted Luan to move out of the way and reveal Lola and Penelope behind her, the former lifting her arm and covering it in diamond before the spear struck, shattering it to pieces once it hit, while the latter took advantage of Lucyfer's shock to punch her right in the face, sending her flying away.

She flew until she hit a wall of rock summoned by Lana, with four more walls coming out of the ground before they merged and trapped Lucyfer inside, with Lisa using her arm cannons to shoot beams that sealed the walls shut, for good measure.

With that done, Lana lifted the ball with her geokinesis and threw it over to Lynn, who ran around it in circles fast enough to leave a circle, then left before she snapped her fingers, causing a large pillar of fire to erupt from the circle, sending the boulder flying in the sky while heating up its inside, and the fused goth in the process.

Once the pillar dissipated and the boulder remained on the sky for a moment, though, the rocks forming the object dissipated, leaving a severely exhausted Lucyfer behind. And just as she opened her eyes, her left wrist was caught by a string, which was summoned by Luan as she stated:

"I'm not letting you escape!"

"Tsk, don't get so confident!" Lucyfer hissed as she tried to break free from the string. "A single string won't-"

And then another string wrapped itself around her wrist, this one coming from Maggie.

"Maggie?!" Luan exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing here?!"

"I may be angry at you, but there are more important things to take care of right now!" the emo teenager answered as she summoned some more strings from her remaining fingertips. "So, stop gawking and summon more of these things!"

Realizing she was only using one fingertip, the comedian turned back to Lucyfer and shot strings from her remaining fingertips, which wrapped themselves around the fusion's left arm.

And just as she struggled to break free from them, a pair of blue-lavender-navy blue lassos appeared and grabbed her right arm, with the goth looking down to see the lassos came from Luna and Sam.

With both arms trapped, Lisa flew in circles and shot energy blasts at the fusion, though she managed to deflect them using her legs.

Which were promptly tied thanks to Lola's sash and Lindsey's yo-yo, before they pulled the string and made the tie even tighter.

What followed was practically everybody throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the fusion: Clyde and Lisa shot energy blasts, Lana raised several boulders and threw them straight at the girl, Tabby and Polly struck however they could, even Penelope shot several crystals as projectiles at the gothic combination.

And as this happened, Proto-Lucy felt everything, causing her to stagger as Lucy took the opportunity to repeadly attack her, with each attack hitting faster and stronger.

"I don't get it, what's going on?!" the prototype asked, with a tone that was dripping with both fear and anger. "We were evenly matched a moment ago! How could you be overpowering me now!?"

As if that wasn't enough, back in reality, yet another set of strings came out of nowhere and wrapped themselves all around, but this time, they didn't come from Luan or Maggie, judging by their confused reactions.

No, the actual person responsible for the strings was flying nearby: It was Liby, Luan's lovechild, showing a particularly robotic, emotionless stare as she opened her mouth and a voice came out:

"Yeah, you're most definitely never escaping again!"

Lucyfer recognized the voice. "Lynn?! What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

"We had a deal, Lucy! I helped you with the Gashadokuro, and you don't kill anybody senselessly!" Liby spoke with Proto-Lynn's voice. "Now, it's time for you to pay for breaking the deal!"

Suddenly, thunder was heard. And as soon as the cobined being looked up, she saw why:

Lori was flying up in the sky, her arm raised as high as she could towards the sky, with several lighting bolts gathering around it as her hair blew wildly in the wind.

And judging by the intensity of the girl's aura, she had every intent to attack the fusion, if at least to soften her enough for one final attack.

"Harut?!" Lucyfer shouted in a panic. "What are you doing!?"

Lori's eyes were obscured by her hair as she proclaimed:

"My name..."

Then, with the lighting starting to form the shape of a weapon, she slowly lifted her head.

"Is..."

The oldest sister opened her eyes, revealing they were completely light blue with electricity surging through them, and with the lighting finishing taking the form of a hammer, she propelled herself towards the fusion as she finished:

"Lori!"

Once she was close enough, Lori slammed down her lighting hammer right on Lucyfer's face, sending most of her teeth flying as the damage extended to her interior realm, where Proto-Lucy was electrocuted long enough to let Lucy smack her away.

However, once the electrocution stopped, Proto-Lucy gritted her teeth hard enough to break them, and she charged energy in both hands as she exclaimed:

"That's it! No more fooling around! I'm going to hit you with everything I got, and I'm going to make sure you die in a way that you never come back!"

Proto-Lucy merged the energy into one big sphere, as Lucy charged some energy... in one hand.

"Even if this body becomes lifeless again... even if every Lucy in the universe dies after this... I won't let you live!"

With her mind spoken, Proto-Lucy extended her hands forward and shot a beam of black-white energy at Lucy, who merged the energy with her spear and shot a similar beam from it, with the pair being evenly matched as, back in the real world, Lucyfer fell motionless, shivering as she tried to gather enough strength to do something, anything, to stop her impending doom.

However, when she couldn't do anything, her fate was sealed as Lori shouted:

"Now, Lynn!"

Everybody backed away as Lynn, with the help of Polly and "Margo," ran fast enough to cover herself in fiery energy, which extended over her whole body. She then jumped using Margo and Polly as platforms, and plummeted towards Lucyfer, just as the fusion's exhaustion caught up with her realm, causing Proto-Lucy to slowly lose the beam struggle.

"I-I don't get it!" Proto-Lucy screamed. "How can this be possible!?"

Seeing her chance, Lucy held her spear tight and flew forward as the prototype ranted:

"I'm the darkness that engulfs the light of hope! The despair that makes everybody give up their hopes and dreams! The disappointment of those who waited weeks, even months, for a satisfying conclusion, only to get an anticlimax instead!"

And then, with Lucy getting closer and closer, the prototype asked in a panic:

" _Why won't you submit to me!?_ "

Once she surfed through the beam, Lucy destroyed it with a swing of the spear and stated:

"Because I'm Lucy Loud, Goddess of Death! And by my hand, this is the end for you!"

And, being enveloped in an aura once more, Lucy threw her spear forward and spierced Proto-Lucys stomach, just as the realm started to break apart.

This came from Lynn's attack: A very heavy kick to the gut, with a pillar of fire coming from behind the fusion as she exclaimed:

"Phoenix... Dropkick!"

And, using her last of her energy, Lynn pushed forward and caused the pillar to grow bigger and more intense, with her slowly falling to the ground afterward.

The force was so strong, that the kick actually split Lucyfer literally in half, with both halves glitching as they turned back to her components.

On the left was Proto-Lucy, greatly bruised and catching her breath.

And on the right, the side which Lynn got to see as she fell to the ground, was Lucy enveloped in light, still gripping the Gaebolg, and ready to strike it at her counterpart.

And before Proto-Lucy could even plead for her life, the divine goth threw the spear at her counterpart, and successfully hit her in the stomach. She then grabbed the spear and pulled twice before she managed to take it out...

Alongside a black spirit shaped like herself, with "Proto-Lucy" turning into a lifeless body that fell afterwards.

Seeing that, Lynn smiled and closed her eyes as Lucy took the speared entity, plummeted to the ground, and shouted mere moments bfore falling:

"Hikari!"

And as soon as they hit the ground, a massive pillar of light emerged, ending in a skull-shaped cloud.

With that done, the clouds dispersed, and the unlight bathed the city in a peaceful atmosphere, as the light surrounding Lucy vanished, and revealed her Goddess form.

It was more or less the same as the angel one, but with three pairs of wings behind Lucy's back, and with her eyes sporting tombstone-shaped pupils, with black sclera. The Gae Bolg also gained the wings, for whatever reason.

Then, noticing her unconscious brother in the distance, the relieved Goddess walked towards him, and crouched down.

"Finally... a moment of peace," Lucy sighed as she rubbed her brother's head. "Rest, Lincoln. We don't have to worry about anything anymore."

Then, Lucy turned to the zombies nearby, and with a stern look, she stated:

"Zombies of Royal Woods! The fake Grim Reaper has been slain, and the true one has returned! So, I just have one command for you: Go back to your graves, and enjoy your eternal rest!"

The zombies bowed towards the girl, even those who weren't present, and they promptly went back to their graves and buried themselves on the gronud, turning back into lifeless bodies.

And once every zombie had left the area, Lucy caught a glimpse of a particular trio still looking around: Xaiku, Xynn, and Xucy, the last one looking positively exasperated.

So, she decided to walk up to them.

"Hey."

The trio stopped what they were doing and turned to face the goddess of death.

"Judging by your looks, you're counterparts to me, Lynn, and Haiku," Lucy folded her arms. "What are you doing here?"

"We're here to take back the eyes that Silas boy took from me in exchange for "help" during the Gashadokuro mess," Xucy replied, folding her arms and shaking her head, "But for some reason, it seems that we can't find them anywhere-"

Lucy tightened her grip on her spear. "So, Silas asked for your help, and you knew what was happening, and you didn't even raise a finger!?"

"We tried convincing her to do something, but she didn't listen to us," Xaiku said.

"Besides, it's one thing to help someone with a problem that appeared out of nowhere, but it's another thing entirely to ask for help in getting rid of a problem that they caused themselves," Xucy sternly stated, further angering Lucy. "It was his idea to get my eyes for the best, he should've known that adding them to the mix wouldn't have helped anybody! If anything, you should go look for him and-"

"He's dead."

The trio blinked. "E-Excuse us?"

"My counterpart in this dimension killed him in cold blood, the only thing left of him are his mutilated remains," Lucy explained, which she followed by aiming her spear at the trio and saying, "And with this in mind, I have more than enough reason to exile you from this dimension!"

And as a turquoise-light blue portal opened behind the trio, Xucy clenched her fists and snapped, "You're exiling us?! What for!?"

"For betraying the idea behind the deal, and not doing anything to contribute to the Gashadokuro! I would've understood if you didn't know about it, but you did, and you did nothing to help us!"

Lucy charged a Hikari.

"So, you're therefore exiled from this dimension, and if you ever dare return to cause more trouble, I'll personally destroy you!"

Lucy merged the Hikari with her spear, and shot it straight at the trio, sending them flying straight into the portal, which closed soon afterwards.

And not a second passed before the girl was swarmed with attention from the rest of her sisters, and their friends too.

"We did it!" Lola chirped.

"The zombie apocalypse is over!" Luan chirped.

"That's another progenitor defeated!" Luna shouted.

And then, in the middle of Maggie and Luan sharing a hug, Luna stopping Sam from kissing her and making a scene, and Lola and Lindsey grabbing hands and jumping around, among other bizarre sights, a pair of important people arrived:

Ronnie Anne, still carrying Calliope, and Clyde.

"Hi, you two," Lucy greeted.

"So, this is the Goddess form that Mud-O and Diva-O took during the fight against Proto Mud-O?" Ronnie Anne remarked, earning a confused look from Clyde, which prompted her to slyly reply, "Carol explained it to me."

Clyde turned to Carol, who shrugged with a little smile, and he gently jabbed the girl's shoulder as he said:

"Well, guess we're even, then."

"No, we're not!" Ronnie Anne chuckled. "You still owe me a rematch!"

Before the duo's dialogue went any longer, however, Lucy only had one thing to ask in response:

"Where's Lynn?"

The divine grim reaper soon got her answer when a sandstorm enveloped the area, and she spotted a figure far away, this figure looking like Lynn giving the girl a thumbs up.

"Lynn!" Lucy chirped up, oblivious to the rest of the team's horrified looks. "Oh my goodness, I'm glad you're alive!"

The jock's figure said nothing, and remained in the same pose as Lucy walked to her, against Lori and Leni's wishes, and spoke:

"Listen, you won't believe me, but after everything we threw at my counterpart, we won! She's gone for good!"

Then, the goth finally saw the jock's real form... and it wasn't even the jock herself, but a statue made of dust of her giving Lucy a thumbs up, which blew away into the sky shortly afterwards as Lucy's smile turned into a horrified frown.

Once the realization hit Lucy, she fell on her knees, looked at the clear sky, and shouted:

"Lynn!"

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

"Heya, Lynn here."

Rain poured over the Loud House as Lynn's funeral was held, with the whole family and some of her friends assisting it.

"So, yeah, I'm dead. And that sucks."

The next day, Lori and Leni were shown talking with Carol, who promptly left a few minutes later, allowing Lori to look vulnerable to Leni.

"But in times like this, we need to stay positive."

Then it showed Luna and Luan, the former looking teary-eyed at Sam, and the latter flinching before she turned around to spot Maggie, leaning against a lamppost.

"Life goes on... Peace returns..."

Polly and Margo were shown informing Francisco about what happened, before the next sister shown to be Lucy, who was helping Tabby clean the poetry club before the rocker took a moment to hear what the poet had in mind.

"And most importantly... we grow stronger..."

Next duo was Lola and Lana, the former sitting next to Lindsey before the redhead hugged her, and the latter feeding a dog before she turned around, and saw Claire nearby.

"So, next time we deal with the progenitors... they're gonna get a nasty surprise."

Finally, Lisa and Lily talked a little bit before the scientist received an interesting mail, which was followed by the parents barging into her laboratory.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

Lincoln was visited by Ronnie Anne and Clyde, both sitting on the former's cloud as they talked with him, and then offered to take him along for a ride.

" _Apocalypse Averted! Peace Returns to Royal Woods Once More!_ "

Lincoln glanced at the hands, then smiled.

"Don't miss it. :)"

The boy grabbed his friends' hands, and with all three of them together, they soared off towards the skies...


	43. Peace Returns

**And now, we hit the epilogue of the story, which closes the first act of this story.**

 **And for quite likely, positively, moderately, most likely, absolutely last time I do this for this arc, I'm posting this on a Saturday.**

 **How many acts will there be? Well, I'm thinking it could go like three or four acts, with three-to-four (if we count the introduction arc) story arcs per act.**

 **That's just an idea of how things are going to go through, nothing's written in stone.**

 **Anyway, I'm sure you're all excited to see the epilogue, so let's quickly reply to some reviews:**

 **1) Nobody245:**

 *** Yep, I just killed off Lynn, so even the main characters are not safe from death.**

 *** To be fair, you could say all of the Proto-Sisters have Multiple Personality Disorder...**

 **2) MasterCaster: Thank you, same to you. :)**

 **3) GennaiArakida-XIV:**

 *** They get to go to the afterlife. Well, purgatory, but point is, they don't have to worry about empowering a beast anymore.**

 *** Yeah, and they were so important in the story, like... wait, I don't think they were important at all! XD**

 *** Well, they did give the eyes to help Lucy with her deal, which Proto-Lucy then used to finish the Gashadokuro. Then, when Silas asked for help, they told him to tick off and only returned to get her eyes back. So yeah, they're exiled.**

 *** Uh huh.**

 *** I'm surprised you're not trembling with fear at what this means about Lincoln's power.**

 *** #SilasXLucyBestShipEver**

 *** Yup.**

 *** *Mike drop***

 **4) Observant Guest:**

 *** The list is now on my Deviantart at Chaoticson, give it a look when you can.**

 *** Pretty much everybody can agree that the one universally good thing about Sonic games is their music. And I've heard about that remake, it's in 2D, right? I've seen bits and pieces of it and it looks good so far.**

 *** Right, there's a TV Tropes page of this story, right? I don't want to sound pessimistic, but just in case, expect the trope page to remain unedited for a long time, maybe even until the story itself ends. Who knows, maybe by then, there will be so many tropes they'll have to pull a "Pony POV Series" and split them into several folders. XD**

 *** Yeah, he's even just as much of a base-breaking character as he is. XD**

 *** *Flashback to the Mufasa death scene***

 *** Yeah, those four don't really get along.**

 *** Gave a listen to the music, and I think it's quite fitting that a character that would, In-Universe anyway, be seen as second only to Lincoln himself, would have such a divine-sounding theme.**

 *** Father Murderer/Patricide... it plays between Proto-Luna and Cristina, two entities with a less-than-nice view of Lincoln... Lincoln is more or less the father of everything... Patricide means to murder one's father-*Joseph Joestar voice* OH MY GOD!**

 *** And now you get to see the slightly-sweeter-but-still-bitter epilogue. :)**

 **5) ChernoMan:**

 *** I'm afraid I don't have enough time to reply to everythinf you said, so, let me be quick and to the point: I'll keep your advice in mind, I'm glad you enjoyed the story arc, and I hope I'll be able to bring you more enjoyable content soon.**

 **And now, to the epilogue.**

* * *

 **Episode 43: Apocalypse Averted! Peace Returns to Royal Woods Once More!**

* * *

The setting was the city square, a few moments after the climactic battle between everyone and Lucyfer. The Louds were no longer present, presumably having left in order to prepare Lynn's funeral.

And then, the purple and yellow Champions arrived at the scene.

"Okay, this must be the place," Purple Champion said. "Alright, since the bodies of the recently deceased don't dissipate after being absorbed by the Gashadokuro, we've been sent here to collect the recently deceased and take them back to the church, right?"

"Yeah, and then the progenitors will find a way to bring them back to life," Yellow Champion added.

"Great! Looks like we got that clear!" Purple Champion chirped. "I'll go look for the bodies of Haiku and Giggles, and you'll go look for Silas, alright?"

Yellow Champion went silent for a moment.

"Yellow?" Purple Champion asked.

"Y-Yes," Yellow Champion said as they returned to reality. "I'll start looking right away."

Purple Champion shook their head, and began looking for the poet and clown girl's bodies, while Yellow Champion quickly found Silas' body when he stepped on it.

At least, what was remaining of it.

The champion took a step back, crouched down, and took off their helmet, revealing themselves to be none other than Benny as they looked at the remains with a horrified look.

"Good lord, this..." Benny frowned. "Who could've done this to you?"

"I found them!" Purple Champion chirped as she walked to the boy, carrying Haiku and Giggles' bodies. "Have you found Silas yet?"

"Yeah, but he's severely mutilated," Benny said as he stood up and. "I don't think there's anything we can do for him at this point."

"We can't do anything, but _your_ progenitor can," Purple Champion answered. "Just take him to her, and have one of her puppets or whatever turn him into a doll."

Benny looked horrified at the implication. "Did you hear what you just said?! Do you know what a Doll is?!"

Purple Champion dropped the bodies and groaned. "Kid, look at my face."

The champion took off their helmet, revealing themselves to be... a certain pink-haired alter ego of Luna's: Lulu, as they pointed at their face and growled:

"Does this look like the face of someone who cares?"

Benny narrowed his eyes. "No, I guess not."

"Good, now, for the last thing we came here for," Lulu scratched her chin and snapped her fingers. "It was Progenitor Lucy's motionless body, right?"

The duo looked around for the body for a while, but their search proved fruitless.

"Doesn't look like its here," Benny remarked. "It's possible that some of the organization's members grabbed it before we could get here?"

"Ugh, that blasted organization, always getting the things before we do!" Lulu whined, only to sigh then shrug. "Well, looks like they did ignore the lovechildren, so let's bring these bodies to the ship so we can get the lovechildren next."

With that said, Lulu put her helmet back on and went to see the lovechild corpses, leaving Benny to carry Haiku, Giggles, and Silas' mangled body back to the ship.

When he grabbed Silas' body, however, he took the time to take a deep breath and say:

"I'm sorry you all had to end like this, I really am..."

 ** _Next Day..._**

The city was recovering from the event. Constructions workers were working harder than ever to repair any destruction caused before Lincoln took everything to his alternate dimension, and the streets were covered in police tape, covering the places where the zombies came out.

Also, it was raining. Because of course it was.

Finally, there was the announcement that not only would all schools be postponed even further to allow for their students' mental recovery, but also because of the little fact that a certain someone forgot to work on the thing that was the reason for the initial postponing.

So much for that little tease, huh?

Nevertheless, among the many survivors, the Loud Family were taking the hardest time in recovering. All of them weren't even at the house itself; Instead, they had gathered outside for Lynn's funeral, where the Loud family, as well as some of Lynn's friends, reunited to give the girl a proper send-off.

Everbody was wearing a black version of their usual outfits, and they all looked somberly as everybody took their chance in speaking about the deceased. All culminating in Lynn's coffin beingburied in the backyard.

So yeah, it wasn't a very happy day. There wasn't even any dialogue that-

"Lincoln, are you finished?"

The narration stopped, and the boy answered:

"Yes, I'm done."

"Are you really sure you don't want to tell the people what really happened at the funeral?" the voice inquired. "I mean, you and your family did talk a little bit-"

"Bun-Bun, please... stop..." the boy begged, sounding like he was on the verge of tears. "It hurts enough as is..."

"It's time to go to bed," the living toy told the boy. "So... sleep, okay?"

"...Okay."

 ** _Next Day..._**

The Loud siblings had left the house, with most of them being in different locations across Royal Woods. As for the parents, they were back at what remained of the organization, though what remained that was functioning was much less than what remained overall.

They walked around the ruined remains of the organization, looking around to see if anybody else had gathered there today.

"We round up all the survivors from the attack, right?" Rita asked as she kept looking around.

"I sure hope we did, because we found so few of them," Lynn Sr. answered, sounding equally worried. "Pop Pop, Flip, the McBrides, that one weird baby-faced woman who was supposed to start yesterday... really, the situation isn't looking pretty."

Rita took a deep breath. "That's barely five people! There must be more survivors out there-!"

"Rita, stop!"

The woman stopped right on her tracks, and once she looked down, she saw why: She was about to step on a white outline, representing the place the body used to be at before it was recovered.

Not only that, but there were several more outlines spread across the ground.

"These must be the places where most people died during the attack," Lynn Sr. said, twiddling his fingers as he walked around the outlines, hoping not to touch either them or the ground they covered. "If we're not careful enough, we'll step on one of them, nd end up possessed by whoever died there, if they're a member of Lucy's caste!"

"You know, at this point, I would normally ask you not to be so paranoid about Lucy's caste," Rita remarked, looking concerned as she added, "But considering all the other dead-related stuff the caste can do, I wouldn't be surprised if they could do that too."

The couple went through the outline-filled environment, until they arrived at what used to be the meeting room.

Which, oddly enough, was apparently left completely untouched by the carnage: Everything was in its place, the machinery was working just fine, it's almost like, going by this one room, nothing bad happened at all.

Of course, the absolutely dreadful silence filling the room said otherwise.

"Okay, this is starting to feel like a horror movie," Rita remarked as she grabbed Lyn Sr.'s hand. "All that's left is some creepy string music and a hooded, or masked, or cloaked figure sneaking up on us."

Then, the woman turned to her side and shouted, "And if you're here, DiMartino, don't even think about imitating that sound! It wasn't funny the first time!"

"I-i-I agr-gree."

Just then, a part of the ceiling opened, and the monitor literally fell down and hit the table, though it was operational, somehow.

"Mr. and Mrs. Loud?" the monitor asked with a glitched tone as the couple walked to it. "I-It'S g-g-g-gOoD To s-s-S-seE you..."

"Oh, it's the monitor the owner of the organization uses," Lynn Sr. remarked as he "I didn't know it was part of the collateral damage. Not only that, but it looks like it got busted real hard."

"Y-yes, I-i-I was," the monitor glitched. "B-BuT that do-doesn't ma-am-matter now. W-Wha-a-at m-m-matters, is thaaaaaaat y-yoouuu he-head t-to my re-re-re-reaaaal livi-ving place."

"Real living place?" Rita raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"Let-Let-Let me be bluuuunt," the monitor said as it delivered something to a familiar pc: Lisa's. "It's time-time-time for you to-to seeee the re-re-rea-al per-pEr-person behiiiiiiiiind this pllllllllllllace."

"Oh no, the glitching is growing worse," Lynn Sr. said as he checked the energy bar, which was a blinking orange color. "And it's losing energy pretty rapidly, too!"

"There is-is-is no point try-trying to-to-to-to fix this thi-thing now," the monitor replied. "Ins-instead, focus-ocus-ocus on getting Li-Lisa-sa-sa-sa-sa Loud the blue-blueprints I seeeeent her."

The parents tried to ask something, but the monitor then added:

"Use those blue-blueprints, to build-ild a spaceship, to head... to outer-outer-outer spaaaaaaaccceeeeeeeeee..."

And with that, the monitor turned off, leaving the parents to exchange concerned looks.

 ** _Meanwhile, with Lori and Leni..._**

The duo gathered at the kitchen with Carol, who looked rather concerned as she said:

"I'm sorry I wasn't of much help during the apocalypse."

"No, Carol, it's okay," Leni replied, waving her hand with a reassuring smile. "Everybody was already doing so much to try survive, you simply did all you could."

Lori said nothing.

"You know, maybe I should go try see if Lucy's doing okay," Carol stood up and twiddled her fingers. "I haven't talked with her this entire time, and she probably needs somebody to talk to."

"Really, I think _all_ of us, like, need somebody to talk to," Leni sighed. "But sure, go see if Lucy's doing alright. I think she was heading to the poetry club."

Carol nodded, and left the house, leaving Leni alone with the unresponsive Lori.

"Lori, how are you feeling?" Leni asked, without looking at her sister.

But she got no response.

"Listen, I know that you, like, want to put on a tough facade so that the rest of our siblings can look up to you, not to mention try to combat my counterpart's influence on you," Leni added as she looked at the oldest Loud sister. "But that's totes not going to do any good on your mental health."

Lori continued to be unresponsive.

"Lori, come on, I know there has to be at least some kind of comment you want to make," Leni added as she put a hand on her sister's shoulder. "You, like, got the world record for most time spent on the phone! You _must_ have something to say!"

Lori remained unresponsive for a while... then put a hand on her stomach as she said:

"I felt it..."

Leni raised an eyebrow, and Lori answered with a shaky tone:

"I-I felt it... t-the power Lincoln has in him... the... unrestrained power he holds..."

Leni, realizing what she meant, looked away and frowned. "Yeah, I felt it too. I mean, it was, like, my dimension he was destroying with that power-"

"And your counterpart..." Lori continued, clutching her stomach. "She forced me to hit him... she _gave_ him a reason to attack me..."

Leni frowned as Lori slowly looked up, revealing a mortified look as she said:

"Just one reason... when he's angry, that's all he needs... one reason... and he could bathe the entire world in our blood and guts..."

Suddenly, Leni grabbed Lori's hand, getting her attention as she gave her a reassuring look and said:

"Lori, please, Lincoln would _never_ do that. The anger was directed at Sincoln. He also, like, was probably suffering from visions, and what you said just made him react to that-"

"That's also a problem: I don't know what actions I could do that could get him to have a bad vision," Lori answered, grabbing Leni's hand. "You have my literally counterpart's memories, Leni, I don't! You know what kind of actions can get him angry at me, I don't!"

"But in that same manner, you totes have my counterpart's memories, I don't," Leni pointed out. "You know what kind of actions can get him ma at me, and I don't. We're both, like, going through the same pain. The same ordeal."

"But you must have a lot less memories related to you that'd piss Lincoln off," Lori said.

Leni shook her head. "Our counterparts weren't the same as us: It's just as likely that everybody did the same number of things that would get Lincoln angry at them. Including mine."

Then, the fashionista hugged her sister, and whispered in her ear:

"The worst has already happened, and it'll take a while before we have to, like, deal with the progenitors' shenanigans again. Things will get better before they get worse, so stay calm, alright?"

After remaining motionless for a moment, Lori returned the hug, and said:

"I'll try."

 ** _Royal Woods High School, Music Club Room..._**

Sam and Luna were together at the room once again, practicing some tunes. However, there was quite a significant difference in Luna's rhytim compared to... well, the last time they were there.

Her beats were slow and uneven, almost as if something was clouding her mind, preventing from playing the usual tone that she loved to play.

And considering everything that had happened, it would be a miracle if it was just one thing.

Then, she suddenly stopped, and uttered:

"I... can't do this anymore."

Luna put her guitar down and stood up.

"Luna?" Sam asked.

Then, the rockstar began said:

"I say I'm sorry, but you're never sober."

Sam raised an eyebrow.

"I start drinking, it's too much thinking,"

"What?!" the blonde musician exclaimed. "Please tell me that's just a song reference I'm not getting!"

"It's the same every time that you're with me," Luna sighed. "I think I need some fresh air."

Luna muttered "fresh air" twice as she walked to the door, until Sam stood up and asked:

"Luna... Are you okay?"

The rockstar stopped on her tracks, turned around to face Sam, and sporting a truly devastated look, she walked to her and hugged her as started crying and sniffing.

"T-There, there, the world's safe for now," Sam said, trying to comfort the girl. "You don't have to tell me what's bothering you-"

"Lynn's dead." Luna remarked.

"Yeah, I thought so," Sam sighed sympathetically. "I mean, one doesn't usually go to the sun and stay alive long after that-"

"I sent her there to power her up!" Luna exclaimed, her voice cracking as she added, "I threw her over there, and I didn't even think it would kill her!"

"We were running out of options," Sam argued. "Besides, you couldn't have known what would happen if you sent her there."

"B-But-"

Sam pushed Luna back a little and, looking at her with a stern look, she stated:

"Listen, Luna, think about it: Did your sister die? Yes. Does that suck? Absolutely. But if it wasn't for her sacrifice, if it wasn't for the sacrifices everybody did, that crazy gothic horror from Maggie's fanfiction would've killed everyone!"

"That's..." Luna lowered her head. "That's true."

"And besides, you still got your family. You still got your friends," Sam pointed out, pausing for a moment before she added, "You still got me. And I'm going to make sure I never leave your side."

Luna looked back at Sam with a look of revelation, one that made her remember something. She then separated from the blonde, and said:

"Clyde... Told me about what you saw. The suiciding Lunas."

Sam flinched, looked elsewhere and muttered, "Freaking snitch!"

"Sam, I don't know where you got the idea that, what those Lunas did, was something I'd do myself, too," Luna added. "But, I can promise you that, no matter what happens, I'm not going to end my life. Not as long as the progenitors are still out there."

"And what will you do when the progenitors have been taken care of?" Sam asked hesitantly. "What will you do then?"

Luna took a deep breath, faced away from Sam, and then began to sing a familiar melody:

" _If I showed you my flaws... if I couldn't be strong... tell me honestly-_ "

Sam hugged the rockstar, and sung back:

" _I'd still love you all the same._ "

Luna, astonished at both Sam's response and how bad she actually was at singing, shed a tear and smiled as she grabbed Sam's hands, and replied:

"By the way, to what you asked me so long ago... the answer is yes. I'd still love you the same, too."

 ** _Meanwhile, with the comedian..._**

Luan sat on a bench, looking particularly downbeat as she looked around the scenery, trying to find something that could cheer her up, or take her mind off the fact her sister and one of her own friends died.

But the clowns selling balloons reminded her of Giggles, and the dogs chasing after sticks reminded her of Lynn.

"Ugh, going here was a bad idea!" the comedian stated as she stood up. "I need to go somewhere else, but where?!"

"How about my house?"

The comedian flinched and turned around, seeing not Lucy, but Maggie standing nearby, leaning against a lamppost as she added:

"Hey, it's just a suggestion. You don't have to go if you don't want to."

Her shock being replaced with exhaustion, Luan sat back on the bench and asked, "What are you doing here, Maggie?"

"I could sense your downbeat nature from miles away," the girl answered as she shrugged. "And I mean, it's kinda hard not to notice, you know?"

Maggie turned to look at Luan, and saw a large black aura surrounding her, which the comedian didn't seem to notice. "Especially with that aura of downbeatness surrounding you."

It was just then that the comedian noticed the aura, which didn't go away as she rubbed her temples and thought:

" _Great, another power I can't control. What's next, transforming cars into clown cars by touching them?!_ "

"Also, there's something about the idea of Luan Loud, a girl who does her best to cheer up everybody, being sad, that doesn't sit well with me," Maggie answered, gaining a little smile as she added, "And besides, this reminds me of the old times."

"Back when we cheered each other up, however we could," Luan said, gaining a smile as well. "Whenever we saw each other feeling down..."

Seeing the comedian was distracted with the old times, Maggie got an idea and chuckled as she went to get something.

And once she got it and returned to the comedian, she whistled, getting Luan to look at her... revealing not only was she holding a tray with two plates filled with fries, but she had a pair of very long fries at the edges of her mouth, as she chirped:

"Walrus!"

Luan jumped and hit the ground, clutching her stomach and moving her legs up and down frantically as she let out her characteristic laughter, causing the aura around her to dissipate in an instant.

"That's such an easy, common joke, and yet it never fails to make me laugh!" Luan said in the middle of her laughter, which died down as she noticed, "Oh hey, the aura around me disappeared?"

"Yeah, I figured it would do that: When someone from the Luan caste is feeling sad or any other negative emotion, they emit an aura that causes those who are near to them feel the same emotion, at the same intensity," Maggie explained as she sat next to Luan, and ate her fries. "Once the Luan caste member becomes happy again, the aura goes away."

Luan grabbed a fry as Maggie added, "And before you ask how I know all that, I've had to deal with that same aura myself."

The comedian flinched at the statement, then asked, "I-Is the aura something only members of my caste showcase?"

"Well, I've only ever seen members of your caste summon the aura, and nobody else," Maggie shrugged. "So, I'd say it's a fair assumption."

What followed was the girls eating the plates of fries together, remaining silent the whole way through. Once they had finished, Luan tried to gather the courage to say something, but Maggie beat her to the punchline:

"Luan, a simple sorry won't be enough to fix the damage you did to me. I mean, I will accept it, don't get me wrong... but I don't think I'll ever forget what happened between us."

Luan chuckled a little. "You're making us sound like a pair of lovers."

Maggie gasped, and with an amused smile, she asked, "You mean we're not?!"

Both girls laughed out loud at the statement, though their laughter died down rather quickly, allowing Maggie to add:

"But you know, there is one thing you could do to get on my good side."

Luan raised an eyebrow, and got an idea. "You mean _that_ , don't you?"

Maggie nodded with a sly smile, and she got up to bring the empty plates back while Luan got ready to do "that."

Once she returned, Luan was on the ground, legs spread wide and arms spread high, almost forming the figure of a crab.

"Hmm, something's missing," Maggie folded her arms. "Try moving left and right."

Luan obliged, causing Maggie to snicker. "O-Okay, now move faster."

Luan obliged once more, actually looking like she was leaving afterimages with how fast she's going.

"Huh, I didn't know you could go _that_ fast," Maggie giggled. "Now, say "Crabby."

Luan said "Crabby" as fast as she moved, causing Maggie to burst in laughter and grab the lamppost, while she clutched her stomach with her free hand.

"It's so simple! It's so childish! And yet it always work!" Maggie said in the middle of her laughter. " _Why_ does it always work?!"

Luan stopped with her "Crabby" act, and walked to Maggie's side, helping the girl get some air before she stopped, and the duo exchanged looks.

"Well, that certainly put me in a good mood," the gothic teenager said. "Say, there's a food court near here that's looking for entertainers. You wanna give it a shot?"

Luan smiled, nodded, and Maggie grabbed her hand and guided her to the court as she said:

"Then let's go."

 ** _Back at the Royal Woods High School..._**

Normally, Lynn would be practicing sports, or enjoying a sandwich sub, or really doing anything that didn't involve staying in one place.

Instead, she was in a better place.

And Francisco, the boy she had a crush on, only found out about this right now.

"W-What? Lynn's dead?!" the boy exclaimed at Margo and Polly, who were the ones to break the news to him. "W-What happened?! How did she die?!"

Margo took a step forward and opened her mouth, but she hesitated when she felt a shiver down her spine, and she turned around to see Polly looking at her with a stern look, almost as if she was warning her to pick her words carefully.

The girl got the message pretty clearly, and she took a deep breath and said, as Polly rolled her eyes and looked elsewhere:

"She died protecting everyone."

Both Francisco and Polly flinched, the latter turning to look at her as she added:

"She was part of the effort in defeating, and she eventually sacrificed herself in order to hurt her enough to... destroy her, or something."

Margo looked elsewhere as Francisco raised an eyebrow, prompting her to add:

"Look, what matters is that she died helping everyone defeat the one responsible for the zombie apocalypse, okay?! I'm... not sure if anybody has been told about this yet, so..."

"I know, I'll try to spread the word slowly," the boy said, folding his arms. "After all, if people realized left and right that the star player of the school died in the zombie apocalypse, there would be chaos everywhere."

"Now that you mention it, where _were_ you during that incident?" Polly asked as she returned to the duo.

"I could ask you the same thing," Francisco replied. "Especially since _you're_ the ones telling me that Lynn died. Unless one of the Louds told you about it, the only way you'd know is if you were there to witness it."

Polly scratched the back of her head. "Well-"

"We were there," Margo pointed out. "Polly and I were among the people who helped stop the zombie apocalypse."

"Oh really?" Francisco asked, not buying the ludicrous statement. "And what did you do?"

"Polly was tortured in an interdimensional tent run by an extradimensional mad jester who tried to break her mind, but her great willpower allowed her to survive and join the attack force against the apocalypse bringer," Margo bluntly explained. "As for me, I was helping a friend try to cope with the fact he helped start the apocalypse when a yellow square from another dimension possessed my body and-"

"Stop, please," Francisco said as he put his hand on Margo's mouth. "It's already hard to believe Royal Woods went through the freaking zombie apocalypse, the last thing anybody needs is to try mix some weird fanfiction fantasy into all of this."

Once Francisco released Margo's mouth, the girl asked quizzically, "You live in a world where everybody has superpowers, and yet you don't believe my story?"

"Well, you're saying that stuff faster than he can process it," Polly pointed out. "Plus, following the revelation that Lynn died with something so outlandish is kinda... hard to believe."

"And now that you bring it up, I have to start spreading the word that Lynn perished," Francisco said. "See you girls later."

The boy left the hallways, and Margo lowered her head with an upset look.

"Listen, I know it's tough," Polly said as she put a hand on Margo's shoulder. "You're not the only one who's been through something so insane, that nobody believes when you explain what happened-"

"That doesn't bother me; If anything, I'm used to it," Margo waved her hand in a dismissive manner. "I'm more upset at the fact that Lynn actually died. I mean, she's supposed one of the gods of the new world: You'd think she'd be alive until the very last stand against whoever is behind all of this."

"Well, there's always the chance that she could revive," Polly pointed out with a hopeful smile.

"Doesn't change the fact she could always die again, unless she's revived as an immortal or something," Margo further argued. "By the way, this isn't related, but what are you doing here? You don't go to this school, don't you have something else to do?"

"Nah, we finished the requiem for Haiku a while ago, and I'm not in a good mood to return to the poetry club," Polly answered, folding her arms and lowering her head as she added. "I'm just wondering how Tabby is doing; She insisted on staying behind to clean the place."

 ** _At the Poetry Club..._**

Tabby was doing exactly that: Cleaning the poetry club with a broom. This wasn't so bad, since the club primarily had gothic patrons, most of the stuff that had to be cleaned was just dust accumulated over time, and the ocassional bubblegum stuck under the table.

She did have a helper nevertheless, however: Lucy Loud, whose hair covered her eyes once more.

"Say, I'm happy that you chose to help me with cleaning the club," Tabby blurted, trying to get the goth's attention. "But could you, I don't know-"

A closer look revealed Lucy was actually moping one part repeatedly, with the space surrounding her still dirty.

"Clean some other spot besides that one?!"

Lucy didn't respond.

And with this, Tabby walked to the girl, put a hand on her shoulder, and asked:

"Would you like to talk about what's troubling you?"

Lucy stopped cleaning, and after a few seconds, she nodded.

And after a few more seconds, Tabby, looking particularly irritated, sat on the same table as Lucy, handing her tissues to clean her nose with as the girl explained:

"First, I lose Haiku, one of the closest friends I had, in both poetic and in normal life. And then, I lose not only one of my sisters, but the sister that I'm closest to: Lynn!"

"Yeah, I know what happened," the rocker tiredly replied. "In fact, I think that's going to make the headlines for the news eventually."

"How can you be so insensitive about this?!" Lucy snapped, slamming her hands down the table. "I'm telling you how my sister died, and that's all you say to me back?!"

"Don't you have a whistle that can summon a train to the afterlife?" Tabby inquired, surprising the gothic girl. "A whistle that you can blow any time, to summon a train you can ride any time, as long as there isn't an emergency right now?"

Lucy took a step back and looked around, as Tabby took a deep breath and stated:

"You see, I'm sorry if I sound like a jerk, but this is why I dislike your caste the most out of the twelve castes: Every single time something bad happens to you, it's treated like the most horrible thing in the world by you, no matter how grave it actually is, and then you start whining about it instead of looking for a solution!"

"Twelve?" Lucy repeated. "Let's see, there's mine, Lana's, Lola's, Lisa's, Lily's... Lynn's, Luna's, Luan's, Lori's, Leni's... even if you count Lincoln's caste, that only adds up to eleven."

Tabby chuckled and shook her head. "You'll learn what's the twelfth one soon enough."

With that said, Tabby continued her cleaning, and Lucy helped her along until they were finished. With that done, the duo went their separate ways, and Lucy encountered Carol

"Lucy! I finally found you!" the cross-caste teenager exclaimed. "I'm sorry it took so long for me to arrive, I forgot to ask where the poetry club was!"

"Couldn't you just open a portal here?" Lucy pointed out.

Carol rolled her eyes. "Lucy, I need to _know_ where something is before I can a portal to it!"

"Oh right, that should've been obvious! Sorry!" the goth answered. "Anyway, you've arrived just in time, Carol, there's something I'd like to ask you."

Carol chirped up. "Sure, what is it?"

"Adding Lincoln, there are only eleven castes, right?" Lucy asked, earning a nod from the blonde girl. "But Tabby told me there are twelve, so since you're so knowledgeable and everything, can you tell me if that's true?"

Carol looked horrified... then rushed into the poetry club, shouting "Tabby!"

And moments later, the girl herself ran out of the club, laughing as she was chased by an enraged Carol, leaving a confused Lucy behind.

 ** _Meanwhile, at a Beauty Pageant..._**

The contestants rescued by Leni gathered around Lindsey Sweetwater, who was being swarmed by the attention.

" _You helped during the zombie apocalypse?! Wow!_ "

" _Is that yo-yo yours, or is it a hand-me down?_ "

" _Please, give me your autograph!_ "

" _So, this is what Lola feels like after every pageant?_ " Lindsey thought, trying to keep up a nervous smile.

Speak of the devil and she doth appear, for Lola opened the door to the beauty pageant, causing everybody to stop what they were doing and hid behind Lindsey, shivering in fear.

"C-Calm down, I'm not here to enter the contest or anything!" Lola pointed out as she walked to the group. "I was told that this place was attacked during the zombie apocalypse, and I wanted to know how everybody was doing."

"They're feeling better, yes," Lindsey explained. "According to them, they were saved by a girl in a turquoise dress and white glasses."

" _Leni, huh? I guess she does do stuff during the progenitor attacks,_ " Lola thought. "And what happened to the pageant? It was cancelled, right?"

"Yeah, I mean, it kinda had to be cancelled when the zombies attacked," Constance said, folding her arms and putting a pouty face. "And when I was so close to winning, too!"

"What?! Don't be ridiculous!" Chinah exclaimed. "It was I who was going to win that pageant!"

And as the girls continued to argue among themselves, Lola and Lindsey left the pageant and sat outside to get some fresh hair.

With this, Lola tried a quip, "You know, seeing us hanging out together will be seen as weird. iI mean, if this was an ordinary beauty pageant, we'd be at each other's throat by now."

Lindsey, however, said in response, "I'm sorry I couldn't come to your sister's funeral."

"W-Why are you sorry?" Lola asked, caught off-guard by the statement. "What, did you and Lynn develop some kind of friendship while I wasn't looking?"

Lindsey shook her head. "Not for her, for you."

Lola's heart skipped a beat. "Lindsey Sweetwater, my beauty pageant rival, would actually come to a funeral for my sake?"

"Well, I was planning to come so you'd have some company," Lindsey answered. "I mean, it's not like you have any friends you could cling on to, right?"

Lola clutched her chest, now feeling her heart skipping several beats.

"S-Sorry, that was a heavy thing to bring up, wasn't it?" the redhead said. "I should've been more careful."

"N-N-No, don't worry, you didn't say anything that upset me! I do have friends!" Lola nervously replied. "It's just that most of them are beauty pageant friends, rather than... normal friends one would expect."

Lindsey raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, beauty pageant friends?"

"You know, girls around my age, who're obsessed with beauty pageants and tea parties and all that stuff," Lola took a deep breath. "But besides that, there really isn't anything we have in common... I'm basically just friends with them in order to have someone to talk to."

"Then how about we become friends?"

Lola flinched and turned around to see Lindsey giving her a reassuring smile, prompting the diva to reply:

"Well... I don't know, we've been rivals for so long, can we really be friends on top of that?"

Suddenly, the redheaded diva hugged her blonde rival, and closed her eyes as she answered:

"We can try, if you want."

After a little while, Lola returned the hug, and patted Lindsey's back as she answered:

"Yeah, let's try."

 ** _At the Dog Care Center..._**

Lana was helping feed some of the younger dogs, feeding a puppy with a saddened look. The puppy didn't seem to notice, however, and just kept eating the dog treats in her hand.

"Hey."

The girl turned around, and saw none other than Claire standing nearby.

"I couldn't help but notice you seemed down," Claire answered, with Watterson nodding in agreement. "That's not good for the doggies: They can sense it, and it makes them sad too."

"What do you want me to do about it? One of my sisters just died," Lana sighed. "Not only that, but it was the sister I least expected to die."

Claire raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah: Lynn was healthy, athletic, always full of energy, all that stuff," Lana answered as she looked at the ceiling. "She seemed like the type that would live a long, fulfilling life."

Claire frowned. "Lana..."

"I know, I should probably stop sulking, right?" Lana answered as she turned to the toddler. "For the dogs' sake."

"Well, yeah," Claire pointed at the puppy. "But the dog you're feeding is biting your hand."

Lana turned back, and saw the puppy repeatedly biting Lana's hand, though the girl herself couldn't feel it.

"Huh, neat: It doesn't seem like this dog's biting is hurting me," Lana then looked at her arm, and saw blatant bite marks. "It seems my body doesn't heal right away, thought."

Then, getting an amusing thought, Lana looked at the puppy and said, "Hey, don't bite people like that!"

" _I shouldn't bite them?_ " the puppy answered. " _But they won't give me food if I don't bite them!_ "

"But once you're adopted, the same thing will happen if you try it with your owners," Lana pointed out with a concerned look. "There's a saying among humans, it says "Don't bite the hand that feeds you."

The puppy tilted their head. " _Why not?_ "

"Because then that hand will stop giving you food until you go back to being a good boy," Lana clasped her hands and tilted her head. "So please, for your sake, could you please go back to being a good boy?"

The puppy barked and wagged their tail, saying, " _Yes! I'll be a good boy! And I'm going to get loads of food, and loads of love!_ "

Lana giggled and stood up, only to turn around and see Claire's unimpressed look as she said:

"You do know that they'll forget about it tomorrow, right?"

"Most likely, but I don't care," Lana folded her arms and turned to look back at the puppy, who was now playing with other puppies. "I'm just happy to be able to talk to them at all."

Seeing the tomboy in a cheery mood, Claire exchanged looks with Watterson, and getting a nod from her dog, she looked elsewhere and said:

"Hey, I'm going to go to Skippy's house to play catch with him. I'm going to try and catch something he'll throw faster than Watterson-"

"That sounds like fun!" Lana chirped, turning back to Claire as she asked, "Can I join you after I'm done with the dogs?!"

The girl turned to look at Lana, then smiled and nodded.

 ** _Lisa's Laboratory..._**

Lisa was working on her computer, while Lily rested on her crib nearby, hugging her teddy bear with a saddened expression. Lisa didn't look much happier herself, sporting a saddened look as she typed away at her keyboard... then stopped.

"You know, Lily, this is one of those times where I wish I had your intelligence," Lisa said as she leaned back and put her arms behind her head. "Maybe then I wouldn't be conscious enough, to know that one of my many siblings has perished."

Lily threw an exasperated look at her sister.

"Then again, you're smart for your age, so I bet it would sting regardless."

Suddenly, Lisa's computer made a beeping sound, indicating she got mail. And this mail was none other than the blueprints sent by the monitor.

"Hmm, how weird, these seem to be blueprints for a spaceship," the toddler said as she checked the mail. "But I don't remember mailing anybody to send those to me."

Lily opened her mouth to try say something, but her sister replied, "And no, Lily, it can't be something that I requested long ago, I would've given up on the project by then."

Lily shrugged and nodded in agreement.

"Still, these blueprints make an... interesting form," Lisa scratched her chin. "I wonder if our mother and father unit would allow me to work on this project."

"You most certainly can!"

The scientist and the baby turned around to see Mr. and Mrs. Loud arriving through the door, looking exhausted as the scientist folded her arms and asked:

"So, care to explain, mother and father unit?"

 ** _Meanwhile, with Lincoln..._**

The boy stood on the balcony of the Loud house, looking contemplative at the sky as his living toy servant Bun-Bun joined him.

"Is something the matter, Master Lincoln?" the toy rabbit asked.

"We already dealt with three of the progenitors," Lincoln sighed. "But that's it, just three of them. There's still three of them on the loose, who're more than likely even stronger than the ones we've faced so far."

Lincoln looked at his palms.

"I only just recently managed to use my powers against one of them, and even then, Sincoln came out of nowhere and ruined everything."

He clenched his fists.

"I'm not sure how much longer I'll have to deal with Sincoln being inside of me, or how much longer we have before we have to face the progenitors again. The only thing I'm sure of, is that this isn't over yet."

"You bet it's far from over!"

The boy looked in front of him, and saw Ronnie Anne and Clyde, sitting on a cloud and looking at him.

"I'll leave you three alone," Bun-Bun said before he strolled back into the house.

"Hi Clyde, Ronnie Anne," the boy greeted with a little, concerned smile. "Do you need something?"

"Carol told us to get you, since she has something she wants us to try out," Ronnie Anne explained.

"Apparently, she wants us to try achieve some of the stronger abilities in our castes," Clyde explained further. "And in your caste, show you how to do what's considered your "signature ability."

Lincoln raised an eyebrow. "The Savinoken isn't my signature ability?"

"She said it was more of a power up than an ability in and of itself," Ronnie Anne shrugged. "But oh well, with you being you, I'm sure there are dozens of abilities for you to unlock."

Lincoln frowned and lowered his head, prompting the duo to add:

"We know you're still wrapping your head around everything that's happened," Ronnie Anne said. "Jock-O's death, the zombie apocalypse, trust me, you're not the only one."

"But there are times to rest and times to train, and right now, it seems to be the latter," Clyde shrugged. "And besides, remember: We're going through this together."

Lincoln looked at the duo in shock as they added:

"So, how about we go?"

And as Ronnie Anne and Clyde extended their hands towards the snow-haired boy, a familiar song began to play:

 _All that's left's for you to decide,_

Lincoln glanced at the hand, looking tempted by the offer.

 _If you're gonna, stay on the sidelines,_

The boy smiled, grabbed the hands, and jumped into the cloud.

 _Or hitch the ride of your life,_

With the three friends now in the same cloud together, they sat down and grabbed Ronnie Anne's shoulders as the girl made the cloud fly away at high speeds.

 _Oh_

 _My_

 _Lord!_

As guitar sounds were played, the cloud flew past the park, where Lincoln got a vision of the zombies rising from their graves.

 _With the erasure of old history,_

Then, Ronnie Anne gently smacked him in the head, returning him to reality.

 _You cleanly wiped your memory,_

The boy rubbed his head, and took a deep breath.

 _And so you thought,_

But as he turned to look at the duo, he saw Clyde was snapping at Ronnie Anne about how she could've caused Lincoln to fall off the cloud, while the tomboy rolled her eyes, causing Lincoln to laugh.

 _That your life couldn't be more than mundane._

Meanwhile, with Carol, the teenager came out of a portal that was on top of a hill overlooking the city.

 _But after shattering revelations,_

Once she stepped out, she was greeted by two other figures at the hill: These being Lori and Leni, the latter waving hello excitedly.

 _And some baffling explanations,_

Carol asked the duo what they were doing there, and Lori and Leni promptly explained themselves, which made the girl slowly smile before she spotted someone in the distance.

 _You realized,_

The teenager took a couple steps forward, and, once she saw the figures far away were the main trio, she raised both arms and waved them to get their attention, with Lori and Leni joining in as they got closer.

 _From this point, nothing would be the same._

The scene changed to show two things happening at once: First Lana about to pay fetch with Skippy, Claire, and the dog, then Lola and Lindsey having a tea party, both happening before they got a phone call from Lori.

 _And with this fact,_

Then it changed to show Lucy coming out of the afterlife express, and meeting a familiar person at the purgatory: Lynn, now having a red halo over her head.

The duo exchanged smiles and the jock flashed a peace sign as Lucy walked to her, and sat next to her.

 _Dawns upon you,_  
 _A brand new perspective._

Another change came, this time showing Luna playing a violin on one side, and Luan and Maggie doing a comedy act on the other.

 _That'll determine,_

The final change showed Lisa having the blueprints explained to her by her parents, while the other showed Bobby standing on top of the apartment, overlooking the now safe Great Lakes City.

 _If you'll give up,_  
 _Or hold on to your,_  
 _Will to live!_

All previous scenes were shown together as the sisters-and Bobby-got phone calls from Lori, causing them to stop what they were doing and head immediately to the hill, bidding farewell to whoever they were with at the moment.

They did this in their own ways: Lisa propelled herself with her jet legs, Lily flew using her mechanical crib, Lola conjured up block of ice and rode on it, Lana summoned bird wings and used them to fly, Lynn and Lucy held hands as they came out of the heavens while sporting fiery and skeletal wings respectively, Luna used her colorful energy to create a guitar-like board for her to ride on, Luan literally flapped both her arms and legs repeatedly to try and fly, and Bobby simply flew on top of a cloud.

 _Your mortal life's coming to an end,_  
 _It's time that you finally ascend,_  
 _And ultimately transcend,_

Once they were close enough, both the main and the mentor trio waved their arms at them, giving them the signal to come down.

 _Your mortal limits to,_  
 _Come to this world's defense!_

The whole team landed at the hill safely, though some, like Luan, fell face-first on it instead. Once they did that, they joined up with the main trio to both congratulate them and cheer them up for what they were going to do.

 _All that's left's for you to decide,_

Clyde and Lynn shared a fist bump, Ronnie Anne and Bobby hugged, and Lincoln got a hug from all his sisters before Carol whistled, getting everyone's attention.

 _If you're gonna, stay on the sidelines,_

The trio separated and turned to look at Carol as she gave her explanation.

 _Or hitch the ride of your life,_

Once the explanation was over, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne exchanged looks.

 _Oh_

Then Lincoln and Clyde, followed by the latter giving him a thumbs up.

 _My_

The trio turned back to Carol, and nodded with determination, ready to do the test.

 _Lord!_

The trio stood at the edge of the hill, overlooking the city while the sisters, and Bobby and Carol, watched as they charged their energy.

Ronnie Anne concentrated it in her fist and raised it as it surged across it. "Raijin..."

Clyde transformed his arm into an arm cannon, and charged it as he aimed it in front of him. "Cyber..."

Finally, Lincoln put his hands together, and created a rainbow sphere of energy. "Kamehame..."

Carol exchanged pleased looks with Lori and Leni, and looked at the trio with pride as they launched their attacks in unison:

"Thunderbird!"

"Beam!"

"Harem!"

The final, frozen shot was of the trio, standing together, sporting determined smiles as they attacks were launched at the sky.

* * *

 **I BET YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE GETTING A NEXT CHAPTER PREVIEW, BUT IT WAS ME, THE AUTHOR'S NOTE!**

 **Okay, turn down the all caps, hehe.**

 **So, that ends the first act of this story. About dang time, I can already hear some of you say, if not externally, than internally.**

 **I mean, just 43 chapters, and it takes over a year to get them all posted? What the heck's wrong with me? XD**

 **But anyway, this part of the story is done, finito, grand finale, that's all folks, and all that stuff. And yes, I know there's a lot more stuff to cover, but we'll get there when we get there, even if we never get there.**

 **That was a joke, stop freaking out.**

 **Anyhow... that's more or less it. I hope you guys enjoyed this part of the story, I highly thank you all for getting up to this point, and I'll see you again in ACT 2, coming... someday, I guess XD**


	44. Peace Continues

**So, it's Mother's Day. Why of all days did I pick this day to post the next chapter? Because I want to make you guys happy one way or another I guess.**

 **This doesn't mean we're back on a weekly schedule, this is just a calm chapter to pass the time.**

 **Also, I talked with Hope, and we came to the next conclusion:**

 **Act 1 encompasses the intro arc to the P-Lucy arc.**

 **Act 2 encompasses this new intro arc to the Gate of Childhood Arc.**

 **Act 3 encompasses the Proto-Lynn to the Proto-Luna(?) Arc.**

 **And Loudgeddon is the final arc.**

 **So yeah, lots of stuff to keep up with, but we'll do our best to make it worth it.**

 **Finally, in case somebody didn't know about this: The Loud House was renewed for a fifth season, which will have Lincoln and the sisters graduate from their school, and Lori will have to decide if she's ready to leave home or not...**

 **Let's just hope that like Miraculous Ladybug, it'll be the last season... Wait, does Miraculous Ladybug end after five seasons?**

 **Now, to the reviews!**

 **1) Nobody245:**

 *** You could try, but how do you expect the unexpected?**

 *** It's continuing here, as you can see.**

 *** We'll cross that bridge when we get there.**

 **2) Observant Guest:**

 *** Yeah, some things just can't be explained.**

 *** Can you imagine if it ends up like the Pony POV Series page? XD**

 *** Lulu is also the name of a Lisa lovechild. That might be worth keeping in mind.**

 *** I gave a listen to No Hopes or Dreams. And besides bringing Undertale to mind, I get the feeling that "somber" is synonimous with "ominous," is it?**

 *** One version is used for the invasion, and the other is used for people checking the aftermath. Nice touch.**

 *** He suggested that?**

 *** SPAAAACEEEE!**

 *** Yeah, I bet nothing bad will happen that will ruin this peace and quiet... Wait, there's still a lot of story left, oh shi-!**

 *** I've seen Roxanne be shipped with Lola. That's enough reason for me to shove her into this story. XD**

 *** One thing is quite clear, though: It won't be a good thing.**

 **3) ChernoMan:**

 *** And now you get to read the first chapter of act 2.**

 *** Read the list above, and be baffled. XD**

 *** You fool! For every praise Sam gets, the more powerful Mick Swagger becomes!**

 *** Mostly Luan.**

 *** I like my cheese on sandwiches.**

 *** That is what you call a miracle. Maybe Lincoln is behind it, too...**

 *** I'm glad to hear that. :)**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 44: A Week After the Fact! Peace Continues in Royal Woods!**

* * *

A week had passed since the events of the zombie apocalypse had come to pass, and while everybody was still recovering from the events, most people had rested just enough to resume their normal lives.

Among these people was Clyde McBride, who was at Gus' Games and Grub, reading a newspaper titled "LYNN LOUD SACRIFICES HERSELF TO STOP ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE" in all caps, and maybe a little extension across the paper.

"Hey there, Nerd-O."

The boy lowered the newspaper, and saw the one who said that was Ronnie Anne, who sat on the table as he answered:

"Hi, Ronnie Anne. What are you doing here?"

"Well, I got Mom's permission to pay you a visit, and some of your friends told me you were here," the Hispanic tomboy answered as she rested her chin on her palm. "And yes, before you ask, I'm going to pay Lame-O a visit later."

"I wasn't going to ask-" suddenly, Clyde noticed what the girl said. "Wait, you've met Zach, Rusty, and Liam already?"

"What? No, by friends, I was talking about Chandler and Penelope," Ronnie Anne clarified. "You really have more friends?"

"Yeah, three friends I have with Lincoln: Their names are Zach, Liam, and Rusty," Clyde paused and frowned. "Though from what I've heard, Rusty and Liam are kinda... dead."

Ronnie Anne flinched, and frowned as she said, "I'm sorry for your loss."

"Well, we weren't that close anyway, so I guess it only stings... moderately bad," Clyde sighed. "But Lincoln and they were far closer, so, I can only imagine how hard he's taking it."

"Is that so?" Ronnie Anne stood up. "Maybe I should go check up on him-"

The boy promptly stopped her with his telekinesis, put her back on the seat, and showed her his phone as he explained:

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, he's currently in the afterlife with Lucy, looking for her former club members."

Ronnie Anne took a look at the phone, then took a deep breath. "So, barely a week after the apocalypse, Lame-O is training again?"

"Hey, he's actually training this time, rather than sitting at the sidelines, watching everything happen," Clyde pointed out. "I don't know what you think, but that sounds like a big improvement to me."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Ronnie Anne remarked. "Staying at the sidelines wouldn't do anybody any good at this point."

Clyde nodded in agreement, and soon after, he asked, "Say, would you like to come to my house? There's someone who wants to see you."

"Someone in your house wants to see me?" Ronnie Anne repeated. "It's not Penelope, right? 'Cause I think trying to get friendly with her is a lost cause, at least for now."

Clyde shook his head. "No, she's not the one I'm talking about,"

Then he smiled. "I'm talking about someone else..."

 ** _Meanwhile, at the Afterlife Train..._**

Lincoln and Lucy sat together in one of the wagons, the latter looking at the cloud-like environment as the train headed for purgatory, while the former looked at the boy with a look of rising hope.

"I'm happy that you agreed to come with me, Lincoln," the gothic girl remarked. "I would go to the afterlife by myself, but I don't feel comfortable going there alone yet, and our sisters were either unavailable or not ready to grasp what comes after death yet."

"Hey, it's always nice to help out a sister," Lincoln answered as he looked around the cart. "Especially when we get to ride a train driven by Great Grandma Harriet!"

And then his gaze landed on Great Grandma Harriet herself, who had her arms folded and a stern glare directed at the boy.

"Harriet?!" Lincoln exclaimed as he jumped back and hit the wall. "You gave me a scare there!"

"What are you doing here, Great Grandma Harriet?" Lucy asked. "Aren't you supposed to be driving the express?"

"The train has an auto-pilot function just in case the driver is needed elsewhere," Harriet casually answered. "For your information, I'm the only person managing this thing, so that feature is a life saver."

"I can imagine," Lincoln remarked. "I mean, with this thing being as big as it is and considering who you're transporting, a lack of an auto-pilot would be a nightmare."

"Anyway, what brings you here?" Lucy asked.

"I'm here to tell you to not start screwing around until we get there, alright? That means no kissing, no cuddling, no anything that could happen," Harriet sternly said. "I bring enough lovechildren to purgatory in general, I don't need your offspring in my workload!"

Lucy and Lincoln exchanged looks, and the girl asked, "Lovechildren?"

"Haven't you met a lovechild already? Those well-preserved little brats are stuck between the exception and the standard," the Lucy lookalike replied, stopping on her tracks and turning to her descendants as she added, "The exceptions are the ones who are perfectly healthy, without any mental or physical disability."

"What are the standards?" Lincoln asked.

Harriet rolled her eyes. "The ones that hitch a ride."

With that said, the brother and sister exchanged looks as their great grandma went back to the driver's seat. And after a few minutes pondering what the girl meant, the train arrived at purgatory, and the pair promptly came out.

"Thanks for taking us here, Great Grandma Harriet," Lincolnd said. "We'll be back here in no time."

"No problem, kids, just be sure to stay safe out there," Harriet answered, looking sternly at her great grandson as she added, "And Lincoln, whatever you do, don't even think about sealing anything or anyone with your chains again."

The boy raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

Harriet pointed up, revealing the chained up entrances to Heaven and Hell, with the chains still intact.

"I wasn't the one who put them there!" The boy stated as he turned back to the train driver. "It was probably Sincoln or my prototype counterpart's doing!"

"How does that change anything? If Sincoln did it, that just means your evil side did it while you were unconscious, and if Proto-Lincoln did it, then as his successor, it's only natural that the fallout from his actions would fall upon you," Harriet explained. "Besides, there's nothing anybody but you can do to get rid of them."

"Great, guess that's another thing to add to the list of mistakes my counterpart left behind for me to fix," Lincoln sighed. "But now, let's start looking for the morticians club members."

"Before you go, there something else I want to tell you," Harriet spoke, getting the duo's attention. "While the apocalypse was happening, I got... energetic passenger, who kept blabbering something about how "the lord and savior saved me" and stuff like that. I believe she was talking about you."

"And what gave you that idea?" Lincoln raised an eyebrow.

"Sweetie, I've been through my fair share of dimensions, and from what I see, if you're not being used as a pleasure toy, or as the chew toy of that dimension's universe, you're being revered like you were some kind of divine being," the driver explained. "I mean, I know you're one in this dimension, but I've seen this happen even when the Lincoln in that dimension is perfectly ordinary."

With that said, the duo exchanged looks as Harriet returned to the train, and drove away, no doubt looking for another poor soul that had to be taken here.

With their mission clear, the duo exchanged nods and began looking around for any sign of the morticians club...

 ** _Back with Ronnie Anne and Clyde..._**

The tomboy-nerd pair walked to the latter's house, while the boy continued to read the newspaper he held with a neutral look.

"What's up with this newspaper?" Ronnie Anne asked as she snatched the newspaper and spread it open. "It's still being printed?"

"So you have seen it before?" Clyde asked, adjusting his glasses. "Yeah, a random newspaper kid threw it at my face while I was heading to Gus' Games and Grub."

"Same deal with me, though he threw it at the apartment's doorstep instead," Ronnie Anne said as she read the article. "I mean, I understand that this is a big deal, but still printing it while the family still isn't over it feels like a jerk move, you know?"

"Don't worry, no newspapers have reached the Loud house yet," Clyde pointed out, earning a surprised look from the tomboy. "I already checked early today."

"That still doesn't explain why this thing is still being printed, though," Ronnie Anne answered. "I know it's been peaceful since the apocalypse, but has there really not been any other significant events besides Jock-O sacrificing herself?"

Clyde raised an eyebrow, prompting the girl to add:

"Yes, I know I answered my own question."

Eventually, the duo reached the boy's houe, and went inside, only for them to come across a peculiar sighting.

Calliope sat at one of her grandfather's drum set, which she played with a cheerful look as Howard looked at her with a proud smile.

"Wow, you've only been practicing for a week, and you're already up to par with Harold!" the man remarked, scratching his chin. "I didn't know he was such a good teacher."

"I'm really not."

The pair turned around and saw Harold walking out of the kitchen, then heading to Calliope as he said:

"It's just that our boy's such a good student,"

The girl stopped playing the drums long enough for Harold to pat her head.

"His fast-learning genes must've been passed down to our sweet little granddaughter!"

"Um, Harold, you do know she's not our granddaughter, right?" Howard pointed out. "She's from another dimension, remember?"

"And who cares about that?!" Harold grabbed Calliope, lifted her, and hugged her, with the girl giggling as he said, "I love her, you love her, we all love her, and that's what matters!" to reality.

Clyde chuckled at the sight, but that died down as soon as he saw Ronnie Anne's expression: A frown accompanied with lowered eyelids, with a hint of sadness and possibly envy.

"Ronnie Anne?" Clyde uttered, returning the tomboy to reality. "Is something wrong?"

"N-No, I just forgot that your "daughter" was saved during the apocalypse," Ronnie Anne hummed, looking away from the boy. "But I thought she was going to stay at her Grandma's place?"

Upon hearing that, Clyde looked at the ceiling as he began imagining how things would've been like if Calliope had gone to Mrs. Johnson's house.

Ronnie Anne, however, only got to see Clyde's neutral look slowly turn into a worried one before he answered:

"Everybody unanimously agreed that Penelope might not be the best role model for Calliope, so she'll be living with me and my parents for now."

"For now, huh?" Ronnie Anne asked, lowering her eyelids sympathetically. "So, you've thought about the idea that she might leave someday?"

"It's not that she might leave, she will leave," Clyde sighed. "She's not from this dimension: Once her own has been fixed somehow, the best course of action is to let her return to her rightful parents."

"Besides, if things between me and Penelope work out in this dimension, who knows," Clyde smiled with hope. "Maybe there will be a Calliope to watch after all."

And then he grabbed Ronnie Anne's hand as he added, "So, let's properly introduce you to her right now."

"Wait, wha-"

The "a" was extended as Ronnie Anne was dragged towards the girl and the fathers, with Clyde saying as soon as they arrived:

"Calliope, meet Ronnie Anne. She's one of Lincoln's friends who lives in Great Lakes City, three hours from here."

"Uh... h-hi," the tomboy nervously greeted.

Calliope looked at the Hispanic girl for a moment, then smiled and chirped:

"I like you."

 ** _Back at the purgatory..._**

Lincoln and Lucy continued to look for the morticians club members, with each having little success.

At the very least, they did manage to find someone: Firstly, Lucy found Lynn sitting on a cloud-like bench, looking at the sky.

"Lynn!"

The jock turned around and smiled as she saw Lucy running up to her.

"Hey there, Luce!" she greeted, extending her hand forward to shake it with the goth. "What are-"

Suddenly, Lucy jumped straight to Lynn and hugged her tight, rubbing her cheek against hers with a wide, joyful smile.

"Ah geez, it's only been a week, Luce," Lynn replied with a lighthearted chuckle. "Anyway, what brings you back to purgatory?"

"Oh, yes: Lincoln and I are looking for the members of the Morticians Club, a school club that Haiku and I were part of," Lucy explained as she hesitantly separated from her sister. "Apparently, they were working with my counterpart during the zombie apocalypse, and we want to ask them some questions."

"So, the good cop, bad cop routine?" Lynn scratched her chin. "Who's the good cop and who's the bad cop?"

Lucy blinked twice, then tilted her head. "What?"

"You know, the routine where one of you asks questions nicely and uses talk to get the information out of the subject, and the other asks them angrily and uses intimidation instead," Lynn got off the bench. "Have you really never heard of it before?"

Lucy frowned. "I'm afraid I don't watch cop shows-"

"The routine is used in several other shows, not just cop ones," Lynn folded her arms. "Have you seriously never seen it even once?"

"No..." Lucy shook her head. "R-Regardless, we need help finding the group. Think you could lend us a hand?"

Lynn smiled and gave her sister a thumbs up.

Meanwhile, with Lincoln, the boy looked around the cloudy dimension for the club, but just like Lucy, he wasn't having the best of luck. At best, he found some spirits waiting for their judgement, but that was it.

However, the boy stopped when he heard his name being called

"Lincoln!"

And the voices calling him sounded very familiar.

The boy slowly turned around, and to his surprise, Rusty Spokes and Liam glomped him, each sporting a colored halo on their heads: Red and blue respectively.

"Guys!" Lincoln cheered as he and the boys shared a hug. "I missed you!"

"We missed you too, Linc!" Rusty Spokes answered as the boys separated. "We didn't think you were going to come pay us a visit!"

"And fortunately, it seems you're not here as another deceased spirit," Liam added, scratching the back of his head as he looked at the scenery. "There's already a lot of those in here, and it's kinda unnerving."

"I'm sorry that I couldn't do anything to stop you from dying," Lincoln sighed and rested her cheek on his palm. "A lot of pointless deaths happened because of both my and Lucy's counterparts."

"It's okay, Lincoln, you couldn't have known it would happen," Rusty Spokes said, trying to cheer up the boy. "In fact, I died before I even realized I had died! It was totally painless!"

"And now that I remember it, what happened to the rest of your team, Rusty? You know, Flat Tire and Papa Wheelie?" the snow-haired boy said to Rusty, before he turned to Liam, "And what happened to your cousin Hattie, Liam?"

"I think they're still alive, thank goodness," Rusty said.

"And I gave Hattie a task to keep her occupied," Liam rolled his eyes. "I'm honestly kinda scared of how she'd react if she knew I was talking to you right now."

"Alright then, have you seen anybody else in this dimension?" Lincoln asked, before remembering something. "Like, for example, a group of kids and preteens looking like vampires trying to be too gothic?"

"Your mean the Morticians Club?" Liam asked. "That club's hanging around in the dimension, looking at the sealed entrance to the underworld."

"Yeah, and they're also saying about how their heaven has been sealed off, or something like that," Rusty added. "You should probably be careful if you're going to see them."

Lincoln nodded. "I will, thanks guys."

The snow-haired boy stood up and began to look for the club, only to stop when he heard a familiar voice call his name.

"Hey, Link!"

The boy smiled once more. "Lynn?!"

And then the jock jumped out of nowhere, landed next to her brother, and wrapped her arm around him, giving him a noogie as the pair laughed, with Lucy arriving soon after.

"I found Lynn while looking for the morticians club," the goth remarked, clasping her hands. "And she says she's going to help us look for them!"

"Well, I met Liam and Rusty, and they told me they're hanging out somewhere in the dimension," Lincoln replied. "Not very helpful, but they told me they're looking at the entrance to hell, so let's look for someone looking at that entrance."

Lynn raised an eyebrow. "You mean like those guys over there?"

The trio turned around and saw the morticians club sitting down, looking at the sealed entrance to hell, each with black halos over their heads.

Huh, that was anticlimactic.

"Yeah, that's them!" Lucy said. "Hey, guys!"

The club turned around, revealing their eyes glowing purple as their calm looks quickly turned concerned.

"The matriarch came with the pretender!" the buck-toothed member shrieked. "He's going to erase us all!"

"Run for your gothic lives!" the bald member shouted.

The Mortician Club members promptly spread bat-like wings and flew away before Lucy and Lincoln could catch them.

"Dang it, I forgot to think about what to do in case your presence scared them!" Lucy remarked. "I'm so sorry, Lincoln."

"It's okay, Lucy, I should've seen this coming," Lincoln rolled his eyes. "If they're with the progenitors, then of course they'd see me as Sincoln instead of myself."

Lincoln stretched. "What matters now is to catch up with them."

Lynn went wide-eyed. "I don't think that'll be necessary."

Suddenly, a skull-shaped energy blast was shot straight at the trio, who jumped back moments before it hit them.

They then saw the person who shot the blast flying down: It was Renee, still possessing the same aura as before as the Morticians Club landed at her side.

"Daughter Lucy, why would you come here with the pretender that turned the entire world into a living hell?!" Renee exclaimed, pointing at Lucy with a disapproving look. "It's already hard enough to live knowing the one responsible for our hardships got away with it, and now you show his disgusting face to us?!"

"Sigh, is this the Renee girl Great Grandma Harriet warned us about?" Lucy remarked, folding her arms. "I just met her, but I seriously don't like her!"

"Look, the only thing Lincoln wants to do here is ask you some questions," Lynn said as she took a couple steps forward and cracked her knuckles. "So please, for everybody's sake, take the easy way out and let him question you!"

"Hmph, seems like the pretender has managed to brainwash Daughter Lynn into his side," Renee turned to the Morticians Club. "Don't let his words brainwash you too!"

"Brainwashing? Why would I have that power?!" Lincoln said, rubbing his forehead. "That sounds more like a power Lisa would have!"

"Well, if you're supposed to have all the powers of our sisters, and assuming Lisa has that power, then you would have that power as well," Lynn argued, earning "are you serious?" looks from her siblings. "Hey, I'm just saying!"

Suddenly, a cage of bones appeared behind and wrapped Lincoln's body, leaving him to try move his head as he "futilessly" tried to break free.

"I'm not letting you brainwash his followers, pretender!" Renee stated while the Morticians Club cheered up in the background. "I'm going to crush you with the lord's own power!"

"Lynn, take Lucy away from here, and try to think of something else to do!" Lincoln told his older sister.

Lynn folded her arms. "What are you-"

"Just hurry!" the boy exclaimed, giving the girl a wink in the process.

And so, the jock grabbed Lucy and escaped to try and think of what to do, while Lincoln continued being restrained by the cage...

 _ **Back at the McBride Residence...**_

Calliope set up a videogame on Clyde's bedroom, while the guy himself leaned against the wall next to his room, watching Ronnie Anne pacing back and forth nervously.

"Ronnie Anne, you do realize if you keep doing that, you're going to make a hole on the ground, right?" Clyde asked.

"It's just that I can't believe what is happening!" the tomboy replied, stopping to take a breather. "After spending so much time having trouble convincing people I'm not a bully anymore, you show me to your daughter, and not only did she say she likes me, but she wants to play a videogame with me?"

"Well, yeah, that happened," Clyde replied, folding his arms. "Shouldn't you be happy that you finally met someone who's willing to like you from the start?"

"I know, I should be happy, but I can't help but feel like there's something more to it," Ronnie Anne answered as she began to walk back and forth again. "Some ulterior motive like maybe she wants a favor out of me, or she wants to try find out how easy I'm fooled, or-"

Suddenly, Clyde got in Ronnie Anne's way, put his hands on her shoulder, and looked at her straight in the eyes, saying:

"Ronnie Anne, Calliope just came back from who knows how long being the power source of the Gashadokuro. Heck, she just came back from being practically dead! The only thing she'll want right now, is to try and enjoy whatever remains of her life right now: Nothing more, nothing less."

"Ronnie Anne! Dad! The videogame's ready!" Calliope exclaimed from inside.

"Look, what I'm trying to say is, stay calm and enjoy this while it lasts," Clyde added as he went to the door and grabbed the doorknob. "And who knows? Maybe a little friendly game between you two is all you need to see she really wants to be your friend."

Clyde opened the door, and the duo went inside, with Ronnie Anne sitting next to Calliope as she tried to remain calm, like Clyde suggested.

"So, what game are we playing?" Ronnie Anne asked, only to get her answer when she looked at the screen. "Hyper Noise Family?"

"Yeah, it's a multiplayer fighting game combining several characters from the Ace Savvy franchise," Calliope explained as she handed a controller to Ronnie Anne. "We pick a pair of characters, and we engage in a couple matches."

Ronnie Anne hummed. "That sounds fun."

The girl glanced at Clyde, who gave her a thumbs up, and then she decided to try be a little competitive:

"I'll warn you, though, I'm very good at video games. I mean, I kinda had to when Lori forced me to enter a video game contest with her."

"When did that happen?" Clyde raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, it never did, that was actually a dream I had," Ronnie Anne explained. "But ever since then, I worked hard just in case that dream ever becomes reality."

Ronnie Anne turned back to Calliope and smiled, "Anyway, enough talk, time to show you my mastery over videogames!"

"I'd like to see that, but I'll warn you: I'm not going to hold back either," Calliope stated, giving the girl a wink. "Dad's watching us, after all, I'm not going to disappoint him!"

And with that said, the girls began playing the videogame, with Clyde smiling in approval and relief.

 ** _Back in Purgatory..._**

Lynn and Lucy were at another spot in purgatory, the former leaning against the cloud-like wall while the latter twiddled her fingers and paced back and forth.

"Well, I think this is the part where we recognize we need to do something and fast," Lynn remarked as she caught her breath. "Especially because Lincoln got caught in that trap."

"Don't worry, he's just holding back," Lucy answered.

"I'm not saying he isn't, I mean, this is Lincoln we're talking about: He wouldn't hurt anyone without a reason," Lynn replied, scratching the back of her head. "I'm just annoyed that he's still holding back even after those guys said they wouldn't listen to him."

"He's probably just a bit more hopeful because he's not talking to one of our counterparts," Lucy scratched her chin. "What we need to worry about more is figuring out a way to get them to listen to us."

Lynn hummed to herself. "Hmm... I read online that fire can have a purifying ability, so if I could set them on fire-"

"Wouldn't that kill them in the process?" Lucy asked with a disturbed look.

"No: According to Harriet, the dead can't die again once they've reached any section of the afterlife: Before that, they're fair game, but after that, it ain't happening," the jock answered, patting her sister's back with a reassuring tone. "I'm sure being set on fire isn't going to affect them much."

Lynn sighed and lowered her head. "Granted, the problem then becomes getting them to stay still long enough for them to be burned: We'll need to trap them first, but how?"

Lucy, remembering the twins' fusion, smiled and replied:

"You know, the twins taught me an interesting lesson: If there's something we can't do on our own..."

Lucy flashed a determined look. "Then we got to do it together."

Lynn returned the look. "I'm all ears, what's your idea?"

 _ **Back with Lincoln...**_

The boy looked at the Mortician's Club members and Renee with exasperation, as the bony prison kept squishing him, still doing insignificant damage.

"I don't get it, the false god shouldn't be able to withstand His holy power for a moment, let alone five minutes!" Renee growled, clenching her fists with anger as she snapped, "Curse you, false idol! How dare you make a mockery of His divine power!?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're the ones who summoned this thing in the first place," Lincoln replied, narrowing his eyes. "And for the last time, all I want to do is ask you some questions!"

"Lies! You want to break our faith in the lord and savior so we can join your corrupted sect, heretic!" Renee hissed. "Now stop resisting and succumb to His power!"

"Oh come on, are you seriously still with the idea that this thing is working?" Lincoln sighed and frowned. "The only reason this thing's kept me in place for as long as it has is because I've allowef it to."

To further demonstrate his point, Lincoln clenched his fists and powered up a little, causing the prison to completely shatter to piecea, much to the shock of the club members and Renee.

"See? Out of it in an instant," Lincoln said as he grabbed his wrist. "Now, can you stop running while calling me a demon and hear me out already?"

"Impossible! Those bones were bathed in the lord's pure essence!" Renee exclaimed, taking a horrified step back. "Just how corrupted are you that you could easily break free from them?!"

"I don't know, how much of that "divine energy" you keep talking about did you put on the bones?" Lincoln shrugged and shook his head. "I honestly barely felt anything in there."

Renee gritted her teeth. "Why you little-!"

Suddenly, a phantasmagorical neigh was heard from afar, before mist enveloped the area, causing the club members, Renee, and Lincoln to turn at the direction the mist was coming from.

In the horizon came two figures, one standing twice as tall as the other, and moving their head as the neigh was heard once more.

And then that same figure sprinted and leaped right above Lincoln, revealing themselves to look like a rotting pony with a mane made of fire, and a coat a black as brimstone.

Then, the equine entity walked towards the club members and Renee, circling around them as chains came out of the ground with another neigh, leaving the lincolnists stuck in place.

"What the heck is!?" Renee growled as she tried to break free. "Is this one of your minion's doing!?"

"I'm just as lost as you are, girl," Lincoln replied, shrugging as the pony leaped above him again. "I prepared myself mentally for a lot of things, but a hellhorse wasn't one of them!"

Then, the boy turned back to see the equine reach the shadowy figure, which mounted it as the boy mused:

"I think I can figure out who's the other person, though: Maybe it's Lucy... Or perhaps Lynn?"

Once the figure came out of the mist, they were shown to be neither:

They were a small entity, no taller than Lynn herself, sporting a red undershirt with a long-sleeved jacket, with fiery highlights at the edges. The sleeves were black-red stripped, and they ended in black gloves with red fingers.

On their lower body, they wore black pants with fire-shaped holes all around them, and they had black shoes that, from an angle, looked more like the entity had stepped on a creature and used its head as shoes, rather than true footwear.

Finally, and this was the part that caught Lincoln's attention the most, was that their head was literally a skull, with red dots in the place of pupils, and a black flame covered it.

"Who the heck is that?!" Lincoln exclaimed, taking a step back in shock.

The figure threw a look at Lincoln before they made the horse walk forward, right to his side. They then jumped off, raised their sword, and slammed it down.

What came next was a bony cage even bigger than the one Renee used trapping her and the Morticians Club members inside, with the resulting cage looking like a giant creature was biting down on them, though with notable gaps on the teeth.

With that done, the figure placed the sword down blade-first, and turned back to Lincoln, who realized something:

"Lucy? Lynn? Is that you?!"

The entity smiled as best as it could, and nodded.

"No way, you actually managed to fuse!" the boy gleefully exclaimed as he jumped in joy. "That's the second set of my sisters that's actually done that!"

Then, he began asking, "By the way, how did it go? What did you do to merge?"

The fusion pointed at their skeletal teeth.

"Oh, right: Skull for a head, lacks lips to talk," Lincoln chuckled. "Hey, you know what? Maybe if you added Lisa into the mix, you could use telepathy to tell me what you're thinking, hehe."

The fusion scratched their bony chin and looked at the sky.

"Don't tell me they're actually thinking about it."

"Where did Daughter Lynn and Lucy go!" Renee snapped, her arm coming out of one of the gaps. "What did you do to them!?"

"Relax, they're here, although not as individuals," Lincoln said, before pointing at the skeletal figure. "This... girl, here, is Lynn and Lucy's fused form. Lylu."

The fusion looked at Lincoln, and though its skull face didn't let her emote, the boy could still feel that she was looking at him with bewilderment.

"We're still working with the name."

"That being... is Daughters Lynn and Lucy combined?" Renee repeated, blinking twice before she shook off the shock and snapped, "What did you do to them, you fiend!?"

"I didn't do anything to them!" Lincoln replied as Lylu's flames intensified. "They fused under their own volition-"

"Lies! You must've forced them together or something!" Renee exclaimed, shaking the bony bars. "Who else would turn someone as beautiful as them into that monster other than you!?"

Now tired of the girl's statements, Lylu raised her sword, slammed it down, and the cage containing the kids was set ablaze, with the group screaming in pain as Lincoln watched with shock.

"Lylu, why did you do that?!" Lincoln snapped at the fusion. "I know they can't die, but-!"

Lylu gestured the boy to calm down, then snapped their fingers, causing the flames to vanish almost immediately, followed by the bone cage disintegrating to dust. With that done, Renee and the Morticians Club members collapsed on the ground, then woke up, revealing one peculiar detail as Lincoln and Lylu walked to them.

Their eyes weren't Purple anymore. None of them were.

"Ugh, my head," Renee said, grabbing her forehead as she looked at Lincoln, revealing her light blue eyes. "What happened? Where am I?"

The boy and fusion exchanged concerned looks.

"Well, I don't know how to tell this to you, but..." Lincoln sighed. "We're in purgatory."

"Purgatory?" Renee repeated. "You mean, like in that place of Ace Savvy's city where the prisoners are kept contained until the appropriate prison is decided for them?"

"Right, I forgot you're an Ace Savvy comic book fan," Lincoln hummed. "And now that I think about it, yeah, it kinda is like that, except no prisoners."

Lylu jabbed Lincoln's shoulder, reminding him of the mission. "Anyway, we need to ask you a couple questions. For example, what was up with your attitude about calling me a pretender and all that?"

Renee rubbed her forehead. "My head's still spinning, so I'm sorry if I sound like I'm not sure about it, but I think I remember starting to act like that when I was forced to join something called Lincolnism."

The boy's eyes widened. "Lincolnism?"

The divine boy and fusion exchanged looks, then nodded before they turned back to Renee, and Lincoln said:

"Tell us more about it."

 ** _Back outside the McBride Residence..._**

Ronnie Anne, Calliope, and Clyde were outside the house, the former two talking while the latter put his hands on his pockets, looking satisfied.

"I got to say, you seriously impressed me with that game," Ronnie Anne remarked, saving her hands in her pockets. "I never thought I'd end up with several draws in a row before I got a lose and a win."

"Well, we did set the timer to the lowest setting possible," Calliope remarked. "And who's brilliant idea is to have the minimum time limit be thirty seconds?"

The girls laughed out loud at the question, with the laughter dying down as Calliope promptly asked:

"Will you be able to play again with me tomorrow?"

Ronnie Anne glanced at Clyde, who looked away, almost as if he wanted Ronnie Anne to say something without his opinion. So, the girl turned back to the lovechild, smiled and said:

"Sure, and next time, I'll win more than once."

"If you say so," Calliope giggled and ran back inside the house. "See you soon, friend!"

Ronnie Anne's eyes widened as Calliope closed the door, with the tomboy slowly gaining a smile before she jumped up and down, raising her fists as she cheered up loudly.

"You seem especially chipper about beating my "daughter" in a videogame," Clyde chuckled. "What, was that sole straight loss on your side enough that upsetting for you?"

"That's not the reason why I'm so happy, Nerd-O, although that does cheer me up a bit too," Ronnie Anne gently jabbed Clyde's shoulder. "I'm happy because, outside of Lame-O's dates for the Sadie Hawkins dance, I finally got a friend on my side!"

Clyde shrugged. "Good for you."

"Not only that, but she doesn't even seem to mind my past as a bully or see me as untrustworthy because of it, just like you said!" Ronnie Anne added, raising her fist with a laughter of joy. "Even the Sadie Hawkins gals weren't quite trusting of me at first; And yet your daughter did so without question!"

"Again, good for you," Clyde patted Ronnie Anne's back. "Now you have five friends on your side."

"Five friends?" the tomboy began counting. "Let's see, Polly, Tabby, Clo-no wait, Clown-O and Poet-O are dead, so maybe that's why you didn't include them."

Ronnie Anne then came up with four fingers up in her hand. "But even with that in mind, Lincoln, Polly, Tabby, and your "daughter" only come up to four friends."

Then she put her hands on her hips and growled, "And you better not be including Chandler in this, because-"

"Ronnie Anne, I'm the fifth friend," Clyde stated as he walked back inside. "Heck, if you wanna get real technical about the chronology, I'm the second friend."

As she processed what the guy meant, Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow and asked:

"Wait, we are friends?"

"But of course we are," Clyde answered as he reached for the door. "Why else would I tease you so much?"

The boy closed the door afterwards, with Ronnie Anne eventually knocking on it as she exclaimed:

"Wait, what do you mean by teasing me?!"

 ** _The Casagrande Residence, At Night..._**

The entire Casagrande-Santiago family members were fast asleep in their rooms... all except for one particular member: Maria Santiago, the mother of Bobby and Ronnie Anne.

So sat on her bed and looked at the full moon in the sky from her window, taking a couple seconds to admire the lunar glow before she took a deep breath and stood up.

She left her bedroom, making sure to not make sudden noise that would wake everyone up.

With a family like the Casagrandes, this was easier said than done, but the woman managed nonetheless.

She headed to the door, but before she left, she entered Ronnie Anne's bedroom, tip-toed her way to her sleeping daughter, and kissed her forehead.

 _Don't worry, Ronnie Anne, mommy's going to make sure the evil prototype trickster doesn't do anything to you._

With that done, the woman left the room, then the apartment room, and finally walked into the deepest level of the apartment complex, leading to a place that was spoken of many times before.

The Santiago tunnels.

She entered a tunnel in the middle, making sure nobody was watching her before she ventured deeper into the tunnel. For the most part, it was a quiet little stroll into the mechanical interior of the tunnel, until she reached her destination.

It was a highly mechanical laboratory, one very similar to Lisa's underground lab in fact, and in the middle of the room stood a giant monitor, which turned on to reveal itself as a familiar face. Or in this case, monitor.

"Goodnight, Mrs. Santiago."

"Same to you, "Boss Computer." the woman answered as she walked to a metal door. "Although, that's probably a redundant greeting, since there's no "day" where you come from, right?"

"Indeed, but certain habits die hard," the monitor responded. "Now, allow me to show you the invention you've been waiting for."

The metal door slid open, and revealed a single pillar, with a peculiar item on top: An orange gauntlet with several colored gems embeded to it, each sporting a color related to the other castes.

"Your reward for creating the mind control collar: A gauntlet empowered by the crystallized blood of the old progenitors, turning it into one of the few things that can challenge Lincoln himself."

Mrs. Santiago grabbed and put the gauntlet on her right hand.

"Simply use your mind, as you have done before, to channel the power you wish to use from the gauntlet. Train with it, practice your control over it."

The woman looked at the palm of the gauntlet, which glew green.

"And before you know it, you'll be able to challenge Prototype Luan before she can lay her hands on your daughter."

"I'm not someone who supports the idea of deicide," Mrs. Santiago spoke. "But that idea you speak of..."

She clenched her fist and formed a smile.

"Does put a smile on my face."

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

A chibi version of Carol and Lucy stood next to a whiteboard that had "Preview" written on it.

"Hi everybody! Lucy and Carol here to give you the preview for the next chapter! That should be enough to forgive our lack of interaction last arc, right?"

Lucy shrugged.

"Lucy's not in the mood to talk, so I'll say what happens next chapter, and she'll draw it.

To prove her point, Lucy erased the " Preview" word and drew herself, with the twins by her sides and Carol on top of her.

"For starters, we're going to help Lucy train to achieve a new power."

The goth erased the drawing and drew Lincoln and Ronnie Anne together.

"And while that happens, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne... Are going to hang out, I guess?"

Lucy erased the drawing and wrote "Preview End" as Carol hummed.

"Is there anything else worth pointing out?"

Lucy hummed, and eventually shook her head.

"Okay then, that's it for today! See you guys next time!"


	45. Respect for the Dead

**And now we come to the pivotal point: Chapter 45 has been previously the chapter where my stories get cancelled, as in the original chains of reality and wands of destiny.**

 **But do not fear, loyal readers, I'm pretty sure we don't have to worry about this story getting cancelled.**

 **A Hopeful Observer also helped me edit this chapter, so they're back toó :)**

 **Anyway, let's answer some reviews before something else happens:**

 **1) Nobody245: To be fair, kinda, Lincoln and Sincoln are still in the same body.**

 *** The days of Lincolnism, or of the people who know about it?**

 **2) ChernoMan:**

 *** What do you mean by the "a single line yet" tidbit?**

 *** Hey, it'll let you see how many mistakes I made.**

 *** And also, is Calliope really alive?**

 *** He had to find out eventually.**

 *** Mad Titan Santiago, you mean?**

 *** Here's the next chapter, let's see how it holds up."**

 **3) Observant Guest:**

 *** Curses! I knew I should've made him the afterlife train rider! My accidental prophecy power is vanishing!**

 *** You should, it's a pretty epic page for a pretty epic fanfic. Story and length-wise.**

 *** If anything, I'm surprised the fandom itself hasn't made a joke about it: I've never seen a fan piece involving both Lulus interacting in some way.**

 *** Yeah, that sounds like an ominous setup.**

 *** I'm guessing Banjo Three-ie doesn't use that type of soundtrack?**

 *** I see, got it.**

 *** And then Buu happened.**

 *** Well, Zach was nowhere to be seen in the P-Lucy arc, and neither was Pacowski referenced again after his initial arrival in the domed woods, either.**

 *** The universe can be quite cruel to the lovechildren, and Harriet has first seat to witness how the cruelty is displayed.**

 *** I wasn't aware of such a comic. Is it good?**

 *** I based her off Ghost Rider.**

 *** Proto-Luan and the Santiago-Casagrande family have quite a bit of history together.**

 *** Here's another part of the introduction.**

 **And now, ro the chapter.**

* * *

 **Episode 45: A Blind Spot in Lucy's Plan? Paying Respect to the Dead!**

* * *

Another day, another time for Ronnie Anne to try and hang out with Lincoln without the progenitor threat looming its ugly shadow on top of them. Or at least, it seemed like the threat wasn't going to come.

"Wonder if Clyde told Lincoln about me becoming friends with his daughter from another dimension," the tomboy said to herself as she walked to the Loud House. "I kinda want to see his face when he finds out I'm friends with his best friend's daughter."

Ronnie Anne laughed for a bit, before she sulked.

"Then again, he might be a bit disappointed that the only new friend I've gotten so far is from another dimension, so..."

And then she slapped herself back to reality.

"Nah, what am I thinking? Lame-O isn't like that! I'm sure he won't mind if I tell him I've made progress regardless of the dimension."

Finally, the girl stopped once she saw the Loud House in front of her, and remembering Lynn's demise, she couldn't help but quitely talk to herself as she went to the door:

"I wonder how he and his sisters are holding up ever since Jock-O died. I mean, it's only been a week since the apocalypse, so they must be still grieving over her..."

Then, Ronnie Anne knocked the door twice, before the third knock caused it to open on its own, revealing not only it was unlocked, but the house had a noisy living room that hadn't seen the light of day in a while:

While Lucy and Lincoln were nowhere to be seen, Luna was playing some loud rock music to drown out Lori talking with Bobby on her phone, Leni humming something while knitting a sweater, Luan trying to manipulate both Mr. Coconuts and Colonel Crackers at once, and the twins fighting over who had the control remote.

 _Or maybe they're being noisy as heck and acting as if nothing happened,_ Ronnie Anne thought as she went inside, getting everybody's attention.

Well, except for Luna, who continued playing her music until Ronnie Anne shouted, "H-Hey, Rock-O! Could you turn it down a little?!"

Upon hearing her voice, Luna stopped playing and put her guitar down. "O-Oh, sorry, Ronnie Anne; I just saw my siblings about to get into an argument, and I wanted to see if I could still drown it out with my music."

"So, fighting fire with fire," Ronnie Anne folded her arms. "Or I guess in this case, noise with noise?"

Luna shrugged. "Hey, we're the Loud House, did you expect anything else?"

"Oh, it's you, Ronnie Anne," Lori remarked as she hung up. "Did you come to Royal Woods without telling Bobby again?"

"No, Mom, this time I did ask him if I could come," Ronnie Anne replied, with Lori flinching at the mention of mom. "And after Carlota talked with him for a bit, he decided I could go, as long as I came back by noon."

Lori looked away and narrowed her eyes.

 _Dang it, I told that idiot not to let her return so early after Lynn's death!_

Then, she turned back to Ronnie Anne and put up a smile.

"I-Is that so? That's literally great!" Lori lied as naturally as she breathed. "But I'm afraid that Lincoln isn't in the mood to play with you right now."

"I'm not here to play with him, I'm here to check up on him," Ronnie Anne replied, folding her arms. "I know it's only been about a week since Jock-O's death, but I want to see if Lame-O's holding up well."

Just as Ronnie Anne walked to the stairs, however, Lori suddenly appeared in front of her, with sparks of electricity flying out of her body as she faced Ronnie Anne with a stern smile.

"Did you just run so fast from your seat to here, that you generated an electrical field?" Ronnie Anne inquired, looking surprised before she changed her expression to awe. "That's so cool! You should teach me how to do that some time!"

"Oh, I will, don't worry about it," Lori replied, maintaining her smile. "However, I'm afraid I'll have to dash your desire to see Lincoln right now, because he's busy with something else."

Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow, and Leni promptly answered:

"He's in his room with Carol and Lucy, checking the eyes of the latter."

Upon hearing that, Ronnie Anne ran past Lori and went upstairs, with the eldest sister throwing an angry look at the fashionista as she responded, focusing solely on her knitting:

"She had to, like, find out eventually."

Once at the boy's bedroom, Ronnie Anne barged inside to see Carol and Lincoln sitting on the boy's bed, with a blinded Lucy sitting between them.

"Lame-O, what happened to Goth-O?!" the tomboy exclaimed.

"Well, it's a long story..." Carol started.

* * *

A large tube sat in the middle of Shrinivas' basement, holding the motionless body of Proto-Lucy inside the liquid interior of the tube, with Maria Santiago watching over the specimen as a machine nearby printed some results.

Results she grabbed just as Mrs. Shrinivas herself entered in the basement, wearing an apron.

"Maria, Johnson, DiMartino, and I are almost finished with lunch, can you help us to setup the table?"

"Oh, Mrs. Shrinivas. It was very nice of you to lend me your basement to perform some tests on the body of Prototype Lucy," Mrs. Santiago remarked as she faced Mrs. Shrinivas. "Although, I do have to ask why you have a tube here in the first place."

"Well, let's just say, when dealing with the artificial objects and entities is part of the Lisa caste deal," Shrinivas answered with a regretful sigh. "Anyway, could you answer the question?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute, just let me-"

Maria gasped as soon as she looked at the results, and though Mrs. Shrinivas didn't react that much towards it, her face still contorted into a frown as she asked:

"W-What's wrong?"

Maria looked at the results, turned to Mrs. Shrinivas, and explained.

"According to the analysis, the corruption has been removed from the Proto Lucy shell."

Maria frowned.

"Or perhaps, it would be more accurate to say it left the body and found a new host."

"Found a new host?" Mrs. Shrinivas repeated. "Well, I've heard the corruption can be spread, but I thought it could only be spread through specific means, like a direct transfer or something."

Then, she brought up a concerning inquiry:

"Do you know who the new host could be?"

* * *

Lucy twiddled her fingers as Ronnie Anne rubbed her forehead having just heard Carol's explanation.

"So, let me get this straight: After fighting through a literal zombie apocalypse, facing off against giant monstrosities, and several deaths of people we both cared and didn't care about, all to stop Goth-O here from losing her eyes... she loses them anyway?!"

"Well, the point of the entire apocalypse was to prevent it and avoid as many casualties as possible, making sure I didn't lose my eyes was more of a secondary goal," Lucy replied, trying to remain positive. "And yeah, I may have lost them: But we survived the apocalypse, the casualties were left to a minimum, and the souls of the dead managed to go to purgatory. It... honestly feels like a small price to pay-"

"Goth-O, you're being way too casual about this; You're acting more like you lost a hair clip instead of, I don't know, your freaking eyes!" Ronnie Anne replied, putting her hands on her hips. "And besides, what are you going to do if you get into another fight with the progenitors?"

Lincoln raised an eyebrow. "Ronnie Anne, you become friends with Lucy recently? Because I don't remember you reacting like this when Lana and Lola lost their arms."

"Well, in Mud-O and Diva-O's case, they might be missing their arms, but they can still see where they're going, where the danger's at, that stuff!" the tomboy explained, before turning back to Lucy. "With Goth-O, I don't even know if she knows where I'm standing at."

Then, she realized something and snapped her fingers. "And also, while we're at it, have Diva-O and Mud-O come with something for their lack of arms yet?"

"I'm going to have all three of them train with me in the backyard in a moment," Carol answered as she stood up, and grabbed Lucy's hand. "Think you can keep Lincoln company while the girls train?"

Ronnie Anne nodded. Then, the cross-caste girl turned to Lucy and asked with a smile, "So, Lucy, are you ready to train with your sisters?"

Lucy looked around for a moment, until she stopped where she thought Carol was, and said "Uh, sure," with a little smile.

With that done, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne were left alone.

"So, Lame-O," Ronnie Anne remarked, twiddling her fingers. "There's something I need to tell you..."

* * *

Lola and Lana were at the backyard, stretching a little to be better prepared for when Lucy and Carol arrived.

However, while Lana was stretching with a significant amount of effort, Lola was stretching rather half-heartedly.

"Lola, what's up?" Lana asked, getting her sister's attention. "You don't look excited for training."

"I am, it's just that, well, it kinda bothers me that Carol took so long to teach us how to fix our arms, outside of our Goddess forms," Lola answered, looking at her left stub. "I mean, we've been like this for weeks, and only now does she bother to teach us how to replace them."

Lola narrowed her eyes and looked elsewhere. "And what's worse is that Leni, the only sibling who knows how to heal people, refused to heal our arms."

"Yeah, I hate to say it, but I agree with you," Lana remarked with a forlorn look. "Having Carol wait this long to heal our arms is one thing, but have Leni refusing to heal us hurts."

"Don't worry, I'll fix that soon."

The twins turned around and saw Carol approaching them, holding Lucy's hand. Lana looked excited, while Lola put her hand on her hip.

"Are you going to get Leni to heal our arms?"

"I don't know where Leni is, and even if I knew where she was, I don't think she has enough power to recover lost limbs," Carol answered, scratching the back of her head. "Or at least, I don't think she can do that in her base form."

Carol shook off the thought. "Regardless, this also gives me a chance to help you three learn new abilities."

"I know you said that when you told us we were going to train, but I'm still having a hard time believing it," Lola shook her head and sighed. "I mean, just how many dang powers do we have anyway? I mean, I thought we reached the limit when we achieved our god forms!"

"Yeah, and since when can we access those forms on our own?" Lana pointed out, before she walked to Lucy's side and put her remaining arm on her shoulder. "Besides, this session's for Lucy's sake, not ours."

"Of course, that doesn't mean I should leave you hanging until Lucy learns how to see without her eyes," Carol replied, getting the twins' attention immediately. "So, before we begin with the training proper, I'll teach you how to recover your lost limbs."

Lola and Lana chirped up.

"Temporarily."

Lola immediately pouted.

"We have to work with what we got, okay?" Carol folded her arms. "Now, channel your energy on your stubs the same way you've done to shoot energy blasts."

The twins exchanged looks, and after a reassuring look from Lana, Lola nodded and the duo channeled their energy respectively. This caused the twins' stubs to glow blue and pink, respectively.

"Okay, now, envision the form of an arm where your stubs are, then just will it into existence."

Though somewhat incredulous at the deceptively simple description of the power, the twins took a deep breath and obliged.

So, slowly but surely, crystals and rocks emerged from Lola and Lana's stubs respectively, forming the shape of arms as Carol smiled and clasped her hands, with Lucy looking around completely dumbfounded.

"You know, there are times where only hearing things can give someone the bad impression," Lucy remarked with a concerned look. "I think this is one of those times, so what's going on?"

"The twins are using their powers over materials and minerals to create artificial arms for them to use," Carol replied. "It's nothing out of the ordinary."

Lucy shrugged. "I guess at this point, it really isn't."

Eventually, the arms finished being created, and the twins opened their eyes and witnessed their new replacement arms.

Lana's arm was, as said before, made entirely of rock: A brown kind of rock with decent density, yet faceted in a way to make it resemble something humanoid.

Lola's arm, meanwhile, was made of crystals: Primarily pink crystals that were at their deepest, hottest colors at the start of the arm, before lightening until they were nearly white at the fingertips.

Finally, both arms had the girl's respective caste birthmarks on their palms.

"Yeah, this was more or less worth the wait," Lola remarked as she stretched her new crystal arm. "Okay, Carol, you're on my good side now. What do we do for Lucy's training?"

 _Is she regressing in her development?_ Carol thought, trying to maintain a smile. _Please don't do that, the Proto-Sisters already have a lot of bullshit evidence that Lincoln's a bad role model, show up like this and you'll give them an actual reason!_

The girl promptly shook off her shock. "Anyway, the idea I have in mind requires Lucy to be blindfolded, so give me a second."

Lucy raised an eyebrow as Carol placed the blindfold on her eyes. "Blindfolded? Carol, I'm blind already: How's being blindfolded going to help me whatsoever?"

Carol smiled. "You'll see."

Once the blindfold was set in place, Lucy felt a little... something, in her eye sockets, before the entire world, formerly pitch black, started to glowing in different colors.

What was once pitch black was now more of a very dark grey, with the outlines of the world being represented in white, and the objects having varying colors.

As for the twins, they were represented by pink and blue outlines resembling a stylized version of their form, respectively, with a lighter colored aura surrounding them.

"What the heck is going on?" Lucy asked out loud.

"It's one of your caste's abilities."

Lucy turned towards Carol.

"Or, more specifically, one of _your_ unique abilities."

What Lucy witnessed left her speechless: Carol was just as stylized as Lola and Lana, but her aura seemingly emitted two waves to her mind: One that felt electrifying, and another one that felt like it was practically imaginary.

Not to mention her aura constantly changed between a light blue and turquoise color.

"Your body automatically channels your energy, whether normal energy or soul energy, into your eye sockets and helps you channel the world through a simplified "aura vision," allowing you to see even when you don't have eyes!"

Lucy quickly shook her head and returned to reality.

"C-Carol, I can see so many weirds things, and then I see you, and your aura is switching between colors like... what's that all about?!"

Carol raised an eyebrow. "Is my aura any bigger than Lola or Lana's?"

"No, it's microscopic compared to them," Lucy bluntly answered.

Carol flinched as she felt a heavy pain go down her spine.

"T-Then, y-y-you got nothing to worry about."

"We still think you're cool, Carol!" Lana shouted, growing concerned at the cross-caste's flinching.

"Lucy, I know you're not good with social cues, but you can't just bluntly tell Carol somthing like that!" Lola snapped at the goth. "I mean, that was just rude!"

"W-Wait, I said something rude?" Lucy asked, scratching the back of her head. "I-I only said the first thing that came to mind! I didn't mean to offend her!"

"Well, you did, but I think she's still willing to listen to you," the diva promptly put her hands on Lucy's sholder. "So, change your words so they sound more like a compliment, quick!"

After a brief feeling of Lola's icy crystal arm, Lucy was pushed towards the teenager by the diva, with the goth quickly trying to think of what to say as she saw Carol quickly turn monochrome and collapse on the ground, her eyes completely blank.

Geez, when was her self-esteem to easy to break?

"W-When I said microscopic, I-I meant to say subtle! Yeah, it was more subtle than Lola and Lana's auras!"

Carol immediately regained color and raised an eyebrow.

"Subtle?"

Seeing the words working, Lucy hastily added:

"Y-Yeah! While I can easily see Lola and Lana's from any distance, your aura is one that requires me to look very close into your very being-"

Before the goth could even finish, Carol gently threw a chop at her head.

"Don't screw with me like that: "Subtle" auras don't exist, you either see them or you don't, that's it."

Then, she rubbed her hair with a little smile.

"But, you were just saying that to cheer me up, so, thanks."

Lucy smiled as well as Carol stood up.

"Now, let's not waste anymore time and begin the training session!"

* * *

"As it turns out, I've made a friend!" Ronnie Anne chirped. "It's the interdimensional daughter of Nerd-O, believe it or not."

"Wait, so you became friends with Calliope? That's fantastic, Ronnie Anne!" Lincoln replied with a smile. "No offense, but I guess Lana giving wings to a pig really wasn't just an accident."

Instead of being offended by the implied insult, Ronnie Anne chirped up, "Wait, Mud-O can do that?!"

"She can now, apparently," Lincoln chuckled. "She and Carol went for a walk to a farm the other day, and she wound up accidentally gifting the farmer's pig with wings."

"Wow, that's amazing!" Ronnie Anne scratched her chin. "But could it fly with them, though?"

"Yeah, here's the thing: It got the wings rather suddenly, so it could only flap them around wildly as it tried to figure out what they were used for," Lincoln explained. "It never got off the ground for a second, so flying was out of the question."

"I see..." Ronnie Anne smiled and twiddled her fingers. "So, Lame-O..."

Lincoln nodded and waited for Ronnie Anne's answer, only for the girl to fall silent for a couple seconds before she asked:

"How are you handling Jock-O...I mean Lynn's death?"

Lincoln's eyes widened at the question, while Ronnie Anne tried to remain calm, thinking:

 _W-Wait, why did I just say that? The plan was to hang out with Lame-O, to finally have some time between us, why am I suddenly changing the subject to how he's holding up over Lynn's death?_

Lincoln blinked twice. "Ronnie Anne, why did you suddenly call Lynn by her actual name?"

"Huh, I guess I mostly call her by a nickname, right?" Ronnie Anne rested her chin on her palm. "Well, I figured that since she was dead, I could try to call her by her actual name for once. You know, try to give her respect? But that's besides the point; what's your answer to question?"

"You know, the funny thing about your question is..." the boy rested his cheek on his palm. "I saw Lynn yesterday-"

Suddenly, Ronnie Anne leaned closer, put her hands on his shoulders and exclaimed:

"What caused your near-death experience, Lame-O?!"

Lincoln blinked once. "What?"

"Did you eat poisoned food?! Did you almost drown?! Did you watch a shockingly bad show?! What, Lame-O, what brought you to death's door?!"

"R-Ronnie Anne, calm down, I'm not saying I had a near-death experience!" Lincoln replied as he gently pushed the girl back a little. "You see, Lucy has a whistle that lets her summon a train that takes her to the afterlife, and yesterday, I went with her in order to find the morticians club, and we met Lynn over there!"

The tomboy quickly processed all of that, released the boy, and sat back down, looking slightly upset.

"Well, that's a way to ruin the emotional impact of Jock-O's death: If you can just take a train to the afterlife, and visit her whenever you want, then Goth-O's going to be taking every chance she gets until the next progenitor attack!"

Lincoln frowned. "You... don't sound pretty happy about it."

"D-Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that you can see her even though she's dead," Ronnie Anne replied, rubbing her forehead. "It's just that so many people died during the zombie apocalypse, having a way to visit them in the afterlife at the snap of a finger... minimizes what their death means."

Lincoln lowered his head and frowned.

"N-Not that I'm saying it's bad that you can see them-"

"I agree with what you say, Ronnie Anne," Lincoln interjected. "I'm more upset over the fact of something my counterpart did to the afterlife."

"So, Goth-O's counterpart's not the only that meddled with the dead, huh?" Ronnie Anne smiled with a reassuring tone. "Well, if you want, tell me about it: I'll see if I can understand it."

"Well, how do I put this in words that won't blow your mind?" Lincoln took a deep breath. "My counterpart sealed the entrances to both heaven and hell, leaving everybody who dies stuck at purgatory."

Ronnie Anne's eyes widened... and that was the extent of her reaction before she asked incredulously:

"Wait, seriously?!"

"Yeah, I'm not kidding: Both entrances are sealed with orange chains that only I can break, supposedly," Lincoln looked elsewhere. "However, the fact that both Sincoln and the remaining Proto-Sisters are still active convinced me it wasn't such a good idea to break them right then and there."

Ronnie Anne hummed. "I see... Well, I think you did the right choice: Better to have an eternal rest without Insane Immortal Idiots."

Lincoln smiled. "Was that alliteration on purpose?"

Ronnie Anne smirked. "Maybe."

The duo shared another light chuckle

"So, Ronnie Anne, now that you mentioned Lynn... How about you come with me for a moment?"

Ronalda raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to take me to purgatory?"

"I can't exactly do that because Lucy's got the whistle that summons the train leading to it, and I sure as heck am not in the mood to play around with my god powers right now."

Lincoln stood up.

"No, I want you to come with me to somewhere."

* * *

The twins shot crystals and pebbles at Lucy from the sides, with the girl quickly summoning a pair of light shields to block the incoming attacks.

This was followed by a portal opening on top of Lucy, making a notable sound as Carol came out of there and got ready to shoot a lighting bolt at her.

Lucy quickly responded by sensing Carol's aura and forming another light shield, which progressively turned black as the lighting bolt was shot and absorbed by the object.

Moments later, the shield deflected the bolt right back to Carol just as Lucy noticed the shield's change in color, causing her to dissipate both it and the other shields in shock, forcing the trio to stop the training session for the moment.

"S-Sorry guys," Lucy stuttered. "I-I just... I don't know what happened to my arms, but I needed to undo them right then and there."

Carol walked forward to Lucy, while Lola and Lana exchanged looks, pondering whether they should help Lucy as well or let Carol handle it. At least until she spoke.

"You girls go get a bit more used to your artificial arms, I'll take care of this."

However, despite being told she'd deal with it, the twins refused to budge, and instead walked to Lucy's side as the goth explained herself.

"While I was fighting my counterpart, she said that the elements I control were based on my emotions: The more unstable I became, the more I leaned towards darkness, and the more in control I was, the more I leaned towards light."

"So, a classic case of "light is good" and "Dark is evil," isn't it?" Lana inquired.

Lucy shook her head.

"Light and Darkness are two halves of one whole thing, right? I think what my counterpart was trying to say by having me accept the darkness, she was trying to trick me into gaining control over light and darkness at the same time."

"Don't even think for a second it was for your sake," Lola stated, with Lana nodding in agreement. "Seeing as she was desperate enough to possess you, she probably just wanted you to be at your strongest so she could have an undeniable advantage over everyone."

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Even more than she already had?"

Carol silently nodded.

"However, look at the bright side: Your counterpart is gone, she can't corrupt you into some kind of copy of herself anymore. And you don't need to worry about the dark magic."

Carol grabbed Lucy's arms.

"Because no matter how long it takes, I'm going to help you control it without going nuts over it."

Lucy, however, wasn't quite convinced yet.

"But what will I do if you're needed elsewhere?"

Carol lowered her eyelids, but maintained her smile.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find a way to work things out."

Lucy glanced at the twins, who gave her reassuring smiles. Feeling reassured, Lucy got into a stance and smiled.

* * *

Going from uplifting to depressing, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne reached the graveyard of Royal Woods, which, thanks to the zombie apocalypse, had gotten a little bit bigger than before.

And as they stood in the entrance, Ronnie Anne hugged herself as the chilly winds blew across the field.

"This place gives me the creeps. Why did you take us here, Lame-O?"

Lincoln took a couple steps forward and took a deep breath.

"To pay respect for the dead."

Realizing what the guy meant, Ronnie Anne nodded in agreement and followed Lincoln as they ventured deeper into the graveyard, barely taking a couple steps before they came across a large array of tombstones.

"Were there this many tombstones before?"

Lincoln shrugged.

"Considering we just went through a zombie apocalypse, I wouldn't be surprised if most of these were casualties from that event. Then again, there's also the chance these could be tombstones some of the zombies came from..."

And eventually, they found one of the places Lincoln wanted to take Ronnie Anne to. It was a set of three tombstones, paired up together.

They read "Ronnie," "Cindy," and "Mindy."

"These are the gravestones for the biker toddlers," Lincoln sighed. "The three girls that were the only ones to not mock me when I was stuck with the girly bike."

"Oh yeah, I remember them!" Ronnie Anne chirped up. "Their leader threw her bike at me once!"

It didn't take long before the tomboy's smile turned into a frown.

"Something tells me that that being the happiest memory I have about them isn't a good thing."

Then she turned to look at Lincoln, who looked at the tombstones somberly.

"For as little as you interacted with them, they still left an impact on you, huh?"

The boy took a deep breath.

"Yeah, but I can't stay all day here. There are a couple more tombstones we need to visit."

After paying respects, the duo went on to the next set of tombstones, this time just being two.

Marked "Rusty Spokes," and "Liam."

No surname for the latter, just "Liam."

"These are the gravestones of my other friends, Rusty Spokes and Liam."

Lincoln crouched down and sighed. "They were forced to move on way too fast."

A closer look and a brain fart later, Ronnie Anne thought of something. "Where's the third one?"

Lincoln raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, outside of Clyde, you hang out with three other friends, right?"

Lincoln smiled. "You just called Clyde by his name again."

"Lame-O, please, this isn't the time for that," Ronnie Anne folded her arms. "As I was saying: You have a third friend besides this Rusty and Liam, right? Now, I'm not saying it's guaranteed that they were killed all at once, but if he had been a victim as well, wouldn't his tombstone been together with these two as well?"

Lincoln slightly raised his eyelids. "Now that you mention it, that is strange..."

Before they could devote the hours for this interesting subject, a loud stomp was heard nearby, prompting the duo to head closer until they found a pair of girls, one standing nearby while the other kicked a tombstone.

They edged closer...

"You ignorant, selfish jerk!"

The duo hid behind a bush and peeked out to see who was assaulting Lynn's tombstone.

It was none other than Margo, who kicked the stone tablet as Polly watched nearby, sporting a worried look.

"I spent all this time getting ready to get my payback for what you did to me years ago, and then you go up and die on me!"

With another kick, Margo paused before she put her foot down, and sniffed.

"It was all up to me to stop the team from dissolving. They were all counting on me to keep it alive. And then you came and turned all of my efforts for naught. I was forced to move to Royal Woods, and since that fateful day you had the audacity to act like nothing happened, I devoted whatever spare time to getting better, so that when we had a rematch, I could take back all the dignity and honor you stole from me!"

Margo began fighting back the tears as they formed around the corners of her eyes.

"But then you decided you needed to die, that you needed to go out like a hero, not caring that you left way too much crap unfinished!"

She clenched her fists and stomped the ground.

"And that's what I hate about you! I thought I understood you back then, but I was wrong: You don't care about the game, you don't care about companionship, or even care about fixing our wrongs! All you care about is being the center of attention!"

Finally, she reached for her back and took out the newspaper, with the news about Lynn in the main page.

"And now that you were featured in the newspaper, I bet you're never going to care again! You didn't care back then, you didn't care now, and you never will care!"

The sportsgirl threw the paper on the solid ground, taking several deep breaths as Polly looked at the paper, snapped her fingers, and summoned a small ball of fire before she threw it at the paper.

This made Margo's expression change from anger to pure shock, which only increased when the newspaper was reduced to ashes, and she looked at Polly to see a neutral expression.

"Margo, I think that's enough for today. If you keep going, sooner or later you're going to get arrested or at least grounded for desecrating a tombstone."

A second of dumbfounded blinking later, Margo shook her head and returned to reality.

"Y-Yeah, you're right. I got everything I needed out of my system anyway. Let's get out of here."

Polly smiled and wrapped her arm around Margo's shoulder as the duo left the graveyard, allowing Lincoln and Ronnie Anne to come out of hiding.

"Geez, I've never seen Jock-O's friend so angry before!" Ronnie Anne remarked, grabbing her arm and rubbing it as she watched Margo leave her view. "Just what made her so angry?"

Lincoln frowned. "I think I know what it was."

The pair walked towards the tombstone, and as it turned out, it was Lynn's.

"Jock-O?!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed. "But I thought those two got along!"

"I'm sure they did, but sometimes, a bit of envy can be hidden inside what seems like a good relationship," Lincoln replied with a shrug. "Plus, Lynn once told me that Margo seemed to get angrier and angrier each day, like something was upsetting her."

Lincoln scratched the back of his head. "Lynn was one of the sisters that had the hardest time reading people, so I guess that, judging by what Margo said, she did something to upset her and failed to fix it before dying."

Then, he became a bit more upset. "And sadly, that's not the first time she's ever done that."

Then, another brain fart later, Ronnie Anne asked. "Lame-O?"

"Yes, Ronnie Anne?"

"I know Jock-O had a funeral, but her body turned to dust, and was then swept away by the wind..."

Ronnie Anne scratched her chin.

"So, what did you put inside the coffin? In fact..."

Ronnie Anne turned to Lincoln.

"What did you bury here?"

The boy fell silent as he tried to remember what was put in there, with another person watching the scene from afar, hidden in a bush.

This person was Stella, who seemed to be caught off-guard by the scene.

"So, all he came here to do was pay a visit to his sister's grave, and not to try do things to her..."

Seeing the boy not acting like how she was told he would, Stella put her fingers close to her ear, touched an earpiece, and spoke.

"Cristina, I found Lincoln in the graveyard-"

 _Was Ronnie Anne with him?_

Stella blinked once. "I... don't see how that has anything to do with-"

 _Answer the question._

"Well, he was with a tomboy of Spanish heritage-"

 _Ding ding ding, that's the Ronnie Anne I've been telling you about. And since neither Paige nor her girlfriend reported to me, that means they lost the bet. Fantastic work, Stella, I expected nothing less from you._

Stella's eyes widened. "They... lost the bet?" After processing the information, Stella's tone turned hostile:

"What are you talking about?"

* * *

Paige and Mabel, former Lincolnists, walked along the streets before the former stopped and turned around, sporting a disturbed look, which her companion quickly noticed.

"What's wrong, Paige?"

The girl narrowed her eyes and shook her head.

"I feel like Cristina just screwed us royally, one way or another."

Just then, Mabel grabbed Paige's hands and flashed a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry about it, Paige: Cristina might not be trusted, but even she wouldn't try to do something to Lincoln while he's still mourning his sister, right?"

"For her sake, she better not."

Just then, the duo turned around and saw a certain guy walk towards them before stopping a few feet away from them: Clyde, who had his hands saved on his pockets as he sternly answered.

"Nobody hurts my best friend while he's feeling down."

Paige's eyes widened.

"Clyde."

Mabel raised an eyebrow. "Huh? That's the boy Cristina warned us about?"

A wind passed as Mabel, Paige, and Clyde exchanged looks.

Mabel smiled slightly and scratched her chin. _He's kinda cute. I wonder what happened that made Cristina not trust him._

Clyde, meanwhile, remained fairly stern. _Why does the blonde's head remind me of a beach ball? Or maybe a watermelon?_

Finally, Paige spoke. "You're Clyde McBride, aren't you?"

Clyde lowered his head. "That's me, yes. Do you need something from me?"

"Just some directions," Paige replied as she folded her arms. "You hang out with both Lincoln and a girl called Ronnie Anne, right?"

Clyde raised an eyebrow, then huffed.

"Maybe I do, why do you care?"

"I get the feeling this'll devolve into a fight if you keep going, so please let me take it from here, Paige," Mabel remarked, earning a nod from the girl before she turned to face the boy. "You see, we're looking for a girl who goes by the name of Ronnie Anne. Would you just so happen to know where she is?"

Clyde scratched his chin and hummed. "I'm afraid I can't say: She was at my house yesterday, and once she finished she went back home, but I don't know where she could be right now."

The boy shrugged and shook his head. "Even if I remembered the last time I saw her, she doesn't seem like the type who likes to stay in one place for too long, so I don't think that would be of much help."

"Of course, a love interest of Lincoln would need to be pretty active..." Paige hummed, scratching her chin. "Mind answering a few questions?"

"Only if you let me ask some questions in return first," Clyde sternly stated. "With a couple conditions too."

Paige raised an eyebrow. "And those are?"

Clyde lowered his eyelids. "If you answer untruthfully, we're done talking. And if you dodge my questions, I'll _force_ you to give me the answer."

Paige's stern look remained frozen on her face for a moment before she flashed a smile. "I like dealing with your kind of people: Reasonable, willing to listen, but know when to make it clear they're not to be messed with. You're the last person I'd expect to be like this, though."

Clyde smirked. "Let's just say my girlfriend forced me to learn how to pull this off."

Mabel, meanwhile, stood at the sidelines, shivering with a worried expression. _Why do I get the feeling these two are inching closer to a fight?_

"Okay, so, question number one: Is there a religion that treats Lincoln like a god?"

Paige and Mabel's eyes widened at the statement, with the former sporting a confused tone as she spoke.

"Well, yeah, there is one: It's called Lincolnism. You didn't know about it?"

"With the revelation he's pretty much a god, I had a fleeting suspicion there would be something like that," Clyde shrugged. "But I wanted to confirm it myself before I did anything else."

With that in mind, Paige scratched her chin as she tried to wrap around what this meant: The best friend of the "lord and savior" of Lincolnism, had never heard from it.

 _Of all the people who weren't aware of Lincolnism, how could Lincoln's best friend be one of them?_ Which brought further food for thought. _Come to think of it, does Lincoln even know Lincolnism is a thing?_

"Question number two."

Paige returned to reality and saw Clyde holding a notepad and a pen.

"Can you tell me everything you know about this religion?"

Paige, realizing this was the perfect chance to throw a metaphorical middle finger at the religion she no longer was part of, slowly turned her frown into a smile and nodded.

"With pleasure."

* * *

 ** _Next Chapter Preview..._**

A chibi version of Lori and Leni stood next to a blackboard with "next chapter preview" written on it.

"Hi everybody! It's me, Leni, and this is Lori! We're going to, like, tell you about what'll happen next chapter!"

Lori promptly shot a lighting bolt at the blackboard, somehow transforming the words into an image of Ronnie Anne and Lisa together.

"Ronnie Anne is going to visit Lisa in order to help her with something."

Lori glanced back at the drawing.

"I'm literally very concerned right now."

Lori shot another bolt, this time transforming the drawing into that of Clyde.

"Anyway, while that happens, Clyde has an odd dream related to Lincolnism and decides to tell Lincoln about it."

Leni's eyes widened.

"Related to Lincolnism?"

Lori nodded.

"Related to Lincolnism."

Leni remained silent for a moment, before she turned back to the readers.

"Well, that's all for the next chapter preview today! See you next time!"

Lori and Leni waved goodbye, sharing concerned looks as the curtains fell.


	46. Digging Deep

**Last chapter's preview didn't say what the episode name, so I guess I must make something up! This chapter will also be kinda like that.**

 **In that there won't be a preview. Sorry, not sorry ;)**

 **Anyway, another reason why I'm posting this so early is because Requiem for a Loud ended today and even if its only three people who read this, I wanted to let them know about it.**

 **After all... No, now's not the time for self-deprecation, now's the time to ask Hopeful Observer to forgive me: I will edit and update the chapter when you're done with your spellchecking, I promise.**

 **Oh, also time to reply to reviews:**

 **1) Nobody245: Cristina can't exactly be called evil, so should her religion be called as such?**

 *** May, haha. That's a funny word...**

 *** Every good mystery writer always makes more questions than answers! That's how it works, right?**

 **2) Observant Guest:**

 *** Loud, Santiago-Casagrande, McBride... The four families ruled in peace, but that all changed when the Chang nation attacked... And truth be told, I never thought of the Changs appearing in the story, but now, I know how to add them... I think.**

 *** Was Yooka Laylee a good game?**

 *** Either Proto-Lisa or Cristina. Or [REDACTED]**

 *** Who's Librarian Wetta?**

 *** I had no idea who Arturo was until I searched. Never thought Ronalda's father would ever be revealed. Maybe he and Harriet could be co-workers on this fic?**

 *** Lori and Leni are gaining some tension, that's for sure...**

 *** Unnerving to the max indeed. Who else could be corrupted, I wonder?**

 *** Yeah, Lynn made one too many enemies while she was alive.**

 *** Cristina and Stella's relationship is a complicated one, to say the least.**

 *** Who else has yet to be accounted, I wonder?**

 **3) ChernoMan: You got your breather with L-UMA, now to get back to the big guns!**

 *** Now I wanna add an Infinity War reference, dang it!**

 *** Maybe, it's been the time span between the creation of the realities since this story last updated.**

 *** Come to think of it, has Ronnie Anne interacted with Lucy before this point?**

 *** Because Lincoln and his sisters are entirely different beings. Must I pull a Steven Universe to get this fact across?**

 *** Hahaha...**

 *** I'm glad you enjoyed it.**

 *** Right, Lucy's whistle is a peculiar item...**

 *** And Tabby brought up the idea of the train being used like that in the first place! Take that, Luna Jr.- I mean, Tabby!**

 *** Here's the next chapter, enjoy.**

 **And now, to the chapter...**

* * *

 **Episode 46: Digging Too Deep! What Does Carol Know About Lincolnism?!**

* * *

Peace still reigned in Royal Woods after the zombie apocalypse, and what better way to show this peace by having Clyde and Luna trying to get people to join Lincolnism, the latter on top of a soapbox?

...

Wait, what?!

"Citizens of Royal Woods! Lincoln is in need of your help!" Luna exclaimed through a megaphone. "You have to give up your beliefs on any other gods you follow and devote to him! Only then can he be convinced not to destroy the world!"

Nobody listened.

"Luna, I don't think this is really working. I mean, we've been trying to get people's attention for half an hour, and nobody has shown themselves to be interested."

"Well, we can't give up either! If we don't show Lincoln that the world appreciates what he does, the entire world is going to perish! The maker said so himself!"

"I know, but-"

"Apologies."

The duo turned around and saw none other than Lisa Loud approaching them.

Except, once she reached Clyde, she wasn't Lisa, but Proto-Lisa.

And instead of being Clyde, he was Proto-Clyde.

 _And_ instead of being the main street of Royal Woods, they were in the middle of a street in some dimension, with several pieces of the road still without the finishing touches or outright unfinished.

 _And instead_ of genuine pizza, the pizzeria nearby was selling some kind of gelatinous mass shaped like pizza!

Jelly pizza! What was this madness!?

"What the heck do you want, Lisa?!" Luna, now Proto-Luna, snapped. "In case you haven't noticed, we're in the middle of something important!*

"And I wholeheartedly agree that standing on top of boxes, pleading the uncaring populace to bring tribute to a deity nobody cares about, is important to an extent," Proto-Lisa responded as she grabbed Proto-Clyde's hand. "However. I too have something important to do, and unlike your little campaign, I'm actually going somewhere with my plan."

"Whatever, just stay away from me!" Proto-Luna spat. "The last thing anybody needs is you driving away the only possible way to save the universe."

The prototype rocker jumped off the box and flew away as Clyde and Proto-Lisa watched her leave.

"At least I don't blind myself to reality."

* * *

The prototypes entered the laboratory, which had a disturbingly similar aesthetic to Lisa's present laboratory, and walked towards a desk with some blueprints.

"So, why did you need me of all people?" Proto-Clyde asked. "I mean, the sisters never really call me for anything, and there's a reason behind anything you do, so-"

Proto-Lisa stopped, causing Proto-Clyde to do the same.

"Clyde, I want you to be completely honest with me."

Proto-Lisa faced the prototype geek.

"Is there any way to stop Lincoln from destroying the reality?"

Proto-Clyde took a step back, and took a couple seconds to think about it before giving his answer.

"No, there's no possible way. After everything Lincoln's gone through, I don't think even his own sisters' pleading could stop him from doing so."

Proto-Lisa adjusted her glasses.

"So right, yet so wrong at the same time."

Proto-Clyde raised an eyebrow.

"It's true that, at this point, there's nothing anybody can do to stop Lincoln. Every prank, every joke, every mockery made at his expense, serve as fuel for his apocalyptic decision."

Proto-Lisa walked to her desk and unrolled some papers.

"But that's not the reason why Lincoln can't be stopped."

The papers, being so long they required the desk to extend twice its size as they rolled out, depicted a shadowy figure holding strings as underneath them, the events of the prototype reality were shown.

Starting with the creation of the progenitors, and seemingly ending with Lincoln getting ready to destroy everything.

"W-What is this supposed to be?" Proto-Clyde fumbled as he took a closer look. "Where did you get it?"

The prototype scientist let out a proud chuckle.

"Lori isn't as good as hiding things as she thinks she is."

The prototype geek's eyes widened.

"You stole this from Lori!? You know how angry she is when people mess with her phone! How do you think she's going to react when she finds this out!?"

"She won't, because even if you tell her, she'd just use Lincoln as a scapegoat instead of punishing the actual perpetrator: Me."

Proto-Lisa smirked.

"And as his best friend, you wouldn't do anything that could lead Lincoln to suffer the brunt of it, would you?"

"... You're good."

"I have to be: I'm a goddess. Now, see the shadowy figure above the picture?"

Proto-Clyde turned back to the depiction and nodded.

"That's the creator of everything. The stuff depicted beneath him are the events that have happened thus far: The Conception Era, the Developmejt Era, and finally..."

Proto-Lisa took off her glasses and dramatically turned to look at the prototype.

"The Greenlight Era."

"Uh, yeah, I'm over here."

Proto-Lisa turned to her back, where once she put her glasses back, could see Proto-Clyde looking at her with a deadpan look.

"Dang it! This bad sight without glasses better be something my successor fixes. Anyway, with all this in mind, and with the visuals provided, what do you think this means?"

Proto-Clyde took a moment to think...

...

...!

"Lincoln destroying this reality, and everybody in it, was part of the creator's plan all along!"

"Precisely: Once this world had come to the extent where new things could safely be developed, Lincoln was meant to destroy it, so that a new world can replace it with the concepts created during the previous time: Our time."

Proto-Clyde put a hand over his forehead and walked back until he hit a wall, which he leaned against for a moment before he got an idea.

"We have to tell the sisters-"

Before he could move, however, Proto-Lisa caught him with her telekinesis and lifted him.

"And what good would that do? Their continued rule over this reality has made them lose their minds: Even if they got them back in time to see everything end, they wouldn't be able to do anything about it."

The prototype put Proto-Clyde on the ground in front of her, then took out a gadget from her back.

"For now, we need to focus on more pressing matters."

"I sure hope one of those matters isn't using that thing on me! By the way, what's that thing for?"

Proto-Lisa took a deep breath.

"We have witnessed what true, absolute power has done to my sisters! Even an ignorant yes-man like you should be able to notice just how crazier my sisters became when they gained the power to rule!"

"The only reason Lincoln hasn't gone nuts like they have is because their iron hold on the reality has left him with little power, if at all! But what will happen once Lincoln becomes the sole ruler of the new reality, with our children serving as his enforcers?!"

Proto-Clyde smiled nervously.

"H-He'll use the power responsibly-?"

Proto-Lisa put the sword down and glared.

"He'll go completely nuts! Whether because he's never had this much power before, or because he doesn't want his rule to ever end, he'll become corrupted by the power like our sisters, becoming just as bad if not worse than them!"

Proto-Lisa smiled.

"Which is why we need the Lincolnbuster."

And just in that moment, Clyde, Neo-Clyde to be exact, woke up from his slumber in a cold sweat, only to find himself in his room, just in time to hear the rooster's crow.

"Man... That was a crazy nightmare," Clyde said as he rubbed his head. "But wait, why would I be dreaming of something that never even happened... Unless it did happen!"

The boy got off his bed and put on his glasses.

"Which means I just had a vision... One that I should tell Lincoln about as quickly as possible!"

* * *

Lana was watching a tv show when she heard somebody knocking on the door. She promptly got off the couch, and opened it.

And outside was... Not Clyde, but Ronnie Anne, sporting a smile and with her hands saved on her pockets.

"Ronnie Anne?" Lana inquired, tilting her head. "What brings you here?"

"Science-O gave my family a phone call, somehow, and said that she needed me for something important," Ronnie Anne rolled her eyes. "Bobby and Mom were a bit concerned at first, especially Bobby, but they eventually decided to let me go."

"And you really think this is such a good idea?" Lana put her hand on her pocket. "Because I'm going to be blunt with you: Lisa's not the kind of person you can just go up to and talk normally: One wrong move, and she'll use you as a guinea pig."

"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."

The tomboy walked past Lana as the girl lowered her head, her hair and hat shadowing her eyes as she spoke.

"Lisa has no empathy or pity: Even Luan learned to feel empathy after her great mistake, but Lisa hasn't."

Ronnie Anne stopped on her tracks and turned to Lana.

"Be very careful, Ronnie Anne."

The tomboy in purple nodded.

"I will."

The girl left just as someone else knocked the still-open door.

This time the person was Clyde, who walked inside a second later.

"Is there really any point in knocking the door if it's already open?" Lana pondered out loud. "Anyway, you're looking for Lincoln, right? He's upstairs, reading his comics."

The guy nodded, and seconds later, he found himself in Lincoln's bedroom, where the boy sat on his bed, reading a comic as Lana said.

"Oh hi, Clyde. What's up?"

The geek took a deep breath.

"Okay, Lincoln, there's something very important I need to tell you-"

"If it's about the reboot of the "Ace Savvy and the Unchained Universe," I already know."

"Wait, really? They're rebooting it?"

"Yeah, apparently after the network skipped a crucial episode and then took too long to air the next season, the creator came this close to cancel, but fan support and the network convinced him to just reboot it."

"Huh, I didn't think the story had enough fans to stop it from being cancelled. At the very least, I thought it was just fine."

"Yeah, but still, can you believe the creator? I mean, skipping an important episode would understandably make anybody upset, but who throws a tantrum over the next season taking too long to air?"

"To be fair, rather than-"

Suddenly, Clyde slapped himself.

"That's not what I'm here for! I got something far more important to discuss with you!"

Lincoln put down the comic book.

"I'm all ears."

"Okay, so, I had this dream about my counterpart: First he was with Proto-Luna, trying to get the other prototypes to give your counterpart so prayer, but nobody was listening."

"That might'vs been her trying to create Lincolnism."

"And then, Lisa's prototype counterpart appeared and took my counterpart with her, to reveal to him that prototype Lincoln destroying the old reality was actually planned by the creator himself!"

Lincoln stopped and processed his information.

"So my counterpart was going to destroy the original reality anyway?"

"That's the conclusion my counterpart reached, and considering how bad the world can kinda be to you at times... I wouldn't be surprised if you've ever wanted to destroy it before."

Lincoln sighed. "So, what do you suggest we do with this information?"

"Well, we can't keep this to ourselves, that's for sure," Clyde stated. "Is there somebody we can tell this stuff?"

Lincoln snapped his fingers. "Carol!"

"Yeah, now that I think about it, she seems to know a lot of things," Clyde scratched his chin. "Maybe she'll know a thing or two about this religion of yours."

Just then, a portal in the bedroom, with its dual light blue-turquoise colors giving the impression that Carol was the one who summoned it. So of course, they jumped through it.

* * *

But once they came out the other end, they found not Carol, but Lori and Leni waiting for them, holding hands with stern looks.

They then separated their hands, causing the portal to cease to exist.

"Wow, you two can open portals, just like Carol?!"

"No, Lincoln," Lori sternly answered. "Carol can open portals, just like us."

"I don't see how changing the order does anything-"

And just then, Clyde put a hand on his best friends mouth and thought of something.

"Were you the ones who took Calliope from her dimension and brought her to ours?"

The sisters refused to answer, instead replying with another question.

"What are you planning to pester Carol about, exactly?"

The boys exchanged looks, and Clyde released Lincoln's mouth.

"This is something I should've told you earlier, but during the trip to purgatory with Lucy, I found out about a religion centered around me, called Lincolnism-"

Lori narrowed her eyes. "And you want to ask her something about it?"

"...yeah, more or less."

"Mostly just find out if she knows anything at all."

"Then you're officially chosen to deal with things that are beyond your comprehension," Leni stated, narrowing her eyes as they glew velvet. "And I'm afraid we need to stop you."

The boys took a step back. "What?!"

"Well, Leni here's going to stop you," Lori answered as she marked Carol's number. "I have to go warn Carol to stay as far away from you as possible."

"What?! But why?!"

"Look, you're trying to deal with a religion: It doesn't matter your intentions, you're going to see some nasty stuff you'll wish you had never seen," Lori put her phone close to her ear as it began ringing. "And we're not willing to let you or Carol see that stuff."

Eventually, Carol answered.

"Hello?"

Before you can say "Omnipresence rip-off," Lori's form turned into lighting and went into the phone, with Leni catching the object once Lori was out of the room.

"Okay, I'll admit teleporting through phones is an ability I'd expect from Lori," Lincoln remarked, with Clyde nodding in agreement. "But still, where did that come from?!"

"That's one of several questions I'm afraid I don't have time to answer, Linky," Leni answered as she saved the phone in her pockets. "Speaking of which..."

Leni closed her eyes, then opened them, revealing they were glowing turquoise as she proclaimed:

"Velvet Illusion!"

The entire room was surrounded by a velvet barrier, with it seemingly vanishing as it was replaced by a large grassfield, with seversl types of weapons stuck on the ground: Mostly swords, but there were also axes, spears, trees, and so on.

The purple barrier vanished and the wind blew as the boys looked around.

"Leni, what is this place?"

"It's a pocket dimension I created myself: One where my powers are at their strongest, and where I can control everything with a thought."

Leni took a deep breath and frowned.

"Trust me, Lincoln, this is all necessary. Because if I'm going to fight you, I need every advantage I can get."

Leni lifted her hand towards one of the weapons, an axe, and it flew right to her, the teenager catching it with two hands as Lincoln spoke.

"But Leni, I don't want to fight you. We don't want to fight you! We just want to ask Carol if she knows anything about Lincolnism, that's it!"

"One way or another, you're, like, literally venturing into some horrifying stuff nobody should ever find out. And besides, I'm not doing this because I want to."

Leni took a deep breath.

"But because I have to."

* * *

The former jumped back as the latter came out of her phone, then grabbed her arm and tried to pull the girl with her.

"There's no time to waste, Carol! We need to get out of here!"

"Okay, but can you at least tell me the reason why we have to leave?"

Lori shot an "are you serious?!" look at her.

"Yes, I know you said we have no time to waste, but how long could the reason we need to go be? Just tell me what's going on."

"Lincoln and Clyde got the brilliant idea to ask you it you know anything about Lincolnism, that's what's going on!"

Lori grabbed Carol's hand again.

"Now stop being so casual about this and let's go!"

Carol slapped Lori's hand aeay, and as the latter shot a baffled glare at the former, Carol took a deep breath.

"Lori, have you stopped to think that maybe, justo maybe, it'd be better of they found out about Lincolnism and we got it over with already?"

"Carol, you know better than anybody else the depravity Lincolnism is capable of!"

"And you know better than anybody else that their existence must be found out eventually. Not only by Lincoln, the god they supposedly worship-"

"They don't worship Lincoln!"

"So they worship Sincoln?"

"Not... that I know of-"

"Okay, how about Proto-Lincoln?"

"Look, I don't know, okay?! And it's besides the point!"

Carol narrowed her eyes and folded her arms.

"Lori, you want me to go away because you're scared of Lincoln, aren't you? It's not that Lincolnism has some messed up stuff, which is a legitimate concern, it's just that, after what happened when Lincoln first " reawekened" or whatever, what happened between you two caused you to develop a fear towards him."

Lori paused for a moment... Then burst out laughing.

"What? Me, afraid of my own brother? Literally please!"

"Lori, Lincoln blew a hole right through your gut and was damaging Leni's dimension so hard she was hurting her as well. Yuu don't have to act like you're not afraid of him: I perfectly understand where you're coming from."

Lori narrowed her eyes.

"Listen, it's one thing to be afraid of Lincoln at his divine form, or when he's using his divine power, but right now, he's just an ordinary boy. I have literally no reason to fear him whatso-"

Suddenly, Carol poked Lori's stomach, causing the eldest sister to leap back and clutch it as she let out a painfully high-pitched scream.

It was safe to say her facade had been blown.

"Lori, why do you insist on acting like the tough older sister that's not afraid of anything?"

Lori looked away and lowered her eyelids.

"And besides, I'm happy you think to warn me and help me find a safe place, but I can take care of myself. Isn't there somebody else who needs your help more than I do?"

Lori thought about it for a moment... And then, she remembered a certain someone.

* * *

Ronnie Anne walked out of the elevator and into Lisa's laboratory, taking a look around the place as the scientist walked to her.

"Ronnie Anne, welcome! I was waiting for you! Follow me, I'll tell you what I need your help with-"

However, once Lisa grabbed her hand, Ronnie Anne stood in place, which was made easier when Lisa failed to make her budge.

Ronnie Anne wasn't even trying to stand still; Lisa just had that little strength, it seems.

"Before we move on," Ronnie Anne broke Lisa's grasp on her, also causing the toddler to fall on her butt. "Mud-O told me that you're someone who lacks empathy towards others. Is that true?"

Lisa rolled her eyes. "What does that have to do with-"

Ronnie Anne lowered her eyelids. "Answer the question."

Lisa closed her mouth and looked away, twiddling her fingers as she stood up, feeling more and more uncomfortable with Ronnie Anne's glare.

"Okay, yes, she's right, but what do you expect from me? I'm a woman of science! I'm supposed to be completely logical with my work, I can't let something like empathy stop me!"

Then, she frowned.

"At least, that's what I thought before the zombie apocalypse happened."

Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow, and Lisa thusly explained.

"You see, ever since Lori and Leni outright threw the truth of our reality right on our faces, I've been the most skeptical about everything. And in hopes that things would go back to normal, I refused to get involced with whatever was happening."

"The beauty pageant? Didn't get involved. The beach incident? Didn't get involved. But as I brought my father figure to the main street, I witnessed zombies around, with a giant skeleton emerging soon after!"

Lisa lowered her head.

"Once that happened, I realized that, maybe logic needs to be thrown out the window."

Ronnie Anne, feeling sympathetic towards the scientist's situation, reached to put her hand on her shoulder, only for Lisa to stand up.

"But that's besides the point! There's something I need to show you!"

Lisa grabbed Ronnie Anne's hand and dragged her deeper into the laboratory, passing by a half-unbuilt Royal Woodroid in the process

"What's that thing?"

"The prototype of the Royal Woodroid 5000, currently being dismantled since I no longer need it."

Eventually,, the duo reached the thing Lisa needed help with: It was a large spaceship... shaped like the spades symbol.

"Whoa! A spaceship?!" Ronnie Anne chirped

"Yes indeed, it is a spaceship," Lisa answered as she released Ronnie Anne's hand. "And it's also the thing I need help with."

"Just what prompted you to build something like this anyway?"

"For some reason, Mother and Father Unit need to head to outer space in order to do... Something they haven't told me yet. So, with their help, we've been building this rocket for outer space travel."

Ronnie Anne looked at the spacecraft skeptically.

"And how do you know this thing's going to take them past the atmosphere?"

"I asked some friends from NASA for pointers on how to make this thing work."

Ronnie Anne rolled her eyes. "No, seriously, how?"

"I'm not surprised that's your reaction: everybody reacts the same way," Lisa sighed. "Anyway, the thing I need you to do is very simple."

Lisa and Ronnie Anne walked to a part of the rocket, and opened it to reveal a large hamster wheel inside, connected to some other stuff.

"Using your electricity, you'll run on this wheel to power up the spacecraft," Lisa explained. "Of the test works, I'll ask you to power it up for the trip."

Ronnie Anne was not impressed.

"So, you want me to run on this wheel in order to power up this thing?"

"That's the gist of it, yeah."

"And I'm supposed to do so for the whole trip?"

"Again, that's the gist of it."

Ronnie Anne lowered her eyelids. "Okay, question: Isn't it highly impractical to build a rocket, or any kind of spacecraft, that is powered by one person running in a giant hamster wheel? I mean, wouldn't a bunch of cables or something like that be more efficient?"

Lisa took a moment to think about it, then covered her face with the clipboard and cried as she crouched.

"Of all the people who could point out the design flaw, why did it have to be a below-average person?!"

"I'm perfectly average! Thank you very much!"

Lisa took a deep breath and composed herself.

"Even if I could replace the engine, I'd need something to power it, or some kind of electric current I don't have."

"You seem to be having trouble seeing the simple solution," Ronnie Annne extended her hand towards the toddler. "So, I say we do the next best thing."

Lisa raised an eyebrow.

"Let's fuse together to find a way to power up this thing."

Lisa dropped her clipboard.

"You do understand the sheer absurdity of what you're suggesting, right?! First off, the only people to ever fuse to my knowledge are our sisters, so they're possibly the only ones who can do it! And even if you suggest swapping you with Lori-"

"Science-O!"

"What!?"

Ronnie Anne extended her hand forward with a stern look.

"Please, at least give it a shot."

Lisa, seeing this as her chance to do a quick experiment, and also having no other suggestions, grabbed Ronnie Anne's hand and closed her eyes, followed by Ronnie Anne closing her own eyes as the duo were enveloped in light: Green for Lisa, a mix of light blue and yellow for Ronnie Anne.

Their forms promptly conjoined together, then morphed into a new being before the light covering them dispersed, revealing the fusion.

She had Ronnie Anne's sweatshirt and Lisa's labcoat tied around her neck like capes, a green sleeveless shirt with a white, long-sleeved undershirt, and a peculiar set of purple pants: The right half resembled a short, while the left half resembled a normal pant leg.

Physically, she had Lisa's complexion and glasses, with Ronnie Anne's freckles and buck teeth, and her hair resembled a brown version of Ronnie Anne's hair, with the ponytail getting Lisa's style.

"Whoa, I didn't expect it to actually work!" the fusion spoke with Ronnie Anne's voice. "I thought you were gonna chicken out at the last second!"

"Give me some credit, dang it!" the fusion added with Lisa's voice. "But regardless, now that the fusion was successful, let's fix the rocket."

The fusion looked at themselves, then activated Lisa's rocket feet to fly up... Until they stopped themselves.

"What should we call ourselves now?"

Lisa's half made the fusion roll her eyes.

"Linnie?"

"Sounds like a guy's name."

"Linalda?"

"Using my actual name instead doesn't make it any better!"

"Okay, how about Lina?!"

After a couple seconds in silence, the fusion pounded her fists victoriously.

"Lina it is!"

Then her tone turned stern.

"Okay, let's get to work already-"

Suddenly, the fusion heard a familiar baby's chuckle, that of Lily's.

"Dang it, I forgot I left Lily alone!"

With that said, Lina flew into the deeper levels of the laboratory, until she saw Lily laughing and clapping as a familiar spirit, that of Hattie's, grabbing her.

"That brat again?!" Lina aimed her arm cannon. "Leave Lily alone!"

The cannon shot a sphere of electricity that followed Hattie as she tried to fly away, only to be quickly caught and paralyzed by it.

"My paralyzing shock and your arm cannon allows us to shoot stunning spheres?" Lina smiled and blew the smoke out. "We might make a better pair than I though, Science-O!"

"Less distraction, more focusing on Lily!"

The fusion snatched the baby and held her with one hand, while aiming her arm cannon at the paralyzed spirit with the other.

"Okay, you jerk, you have five seconds to explain what were you thinking when you grabbed my little sister!"

"I-I-I was just trying to do what I couldn't do before and take her to the church of Lincolnism!" Hattie nervously stated. "She'll be far safer there than with the magnets for the progenitors' wrath!"

Offended by the statement, yet curious at the implication, Lina charged her cannon.

"What is this Lincolnism, and most importantly, what do they want with Lily!?"

* * *

Leni's axe was thrown at the sky as Clyde and Lincoln flew down, the latter holding onto the former as he dodged the axe and shot a couple energy pellets at the teenager, who blocked them with a shield made of hexagons.

The duo flew around the teenager for a moment before Clyde aimed his cannon and shot her in the back, propelling her forward.

"Clyde, try to hold back a little!" Lincoln said as he got on his friend's back. "If you use too much force, you might end up hurting Leni!"

"Hurt her?! I used most of my strength in that shot, and I think that's the first thing that's given her any real damage!" Clyde responded. "It'll take me a while to recharge, but she could quickly get up again!"

And Leni went on to do just that: jumping up to the boy's side and smacking Clyde, causing both him and Lincoln to fall to the ground.

"Clyde!"

The boy tried to stand up, only to fall back down, just in time for Leni's shadow to loom over her younger brother.

She then raised the club and got ready to swing it, only for Lincoln to suddenly turn back, having an expression not of fear, but rage.

"That's enough!"

Lincoln's arm was surrounded in orange energy as he swung it, sending a blade of energy right at Leni, who narrowly dodged it, though it left a cut in her cheek regardless.

A cut that ended everything right then and there, sending them right back to... wherever Lori and Leni were at.

"Huh? What happened?" Clyde asked as Lincoln helped him stand up. "Did you win?"

"I think, but I'm not really sure what I did," Lincoln answered before he turned to his sister. "Where did the dimension go, Leni?"

"It vanished," Leni sternly answered, reaching for her cut. "The cut you gave me must've been enough to cancel my illusion powers."

Clyde, however, was skeptical at the answer.

"Really? A single, minuscule cut from Lincoln's energy cancelled your pocket dimension?"

Leni raised an eyebrow. "You're talking as if he, the top god of this world, shouldn't be able to do so."

Then, she stood up.

"Leni, wait, you must be injured!" Lincoln said, while Clyde prepared to potentially strike back. "Come on, let's not keep fighting!"

"You better do as he says."

A portal opened nearby, this one sharing the same color as Lori and Leni's portal before.

And unlike that portal, this one came from Carol, as shown by the girl coming out of it soon afterwards.

"Carol..." Leni uttered with concern.

The cross-casted girl walked up to the fashionista and looked closely at her glowing cut.

"Lincoln gave you a tiny cut, and your basic powers were nullified. You don't need to keep fighting: You need to go get that fixed before it worsens."

Lincoln's eyes widened.

"It can worsen?"

"Remember Murphy's Law? The one that says how everything that can go wrong, will go wrong?" Carol replied. "Well, to be very clear, your powers work the same way: The damage you do only worsens with time, and doesn't heal."

She turned back to Leni.

"So, please go through the portal, Lori will take you to... I don't know where, but a place where that can be fixed."

Leni glanced back at Lincoln and Clyde, the former gesturing her to go while the latter turned his arm cannon back into a hand.

Seeing this, Leni took a deep breath, and walked through the portal, with Carol closing it as the boys walked up to her.

"Alright, so, Lori put me up to speed: Lincoln found out about Lincolnism, I'm guessing Clyde found out about it as well, and who knows, maybe Ronnie Anne will find out about it tomorrow or something."

Carol took a deep breath.

"I just want you to promise that, whatever you take away from my answers, that you realize you don't have the right to complain if you don't like the answer you get."

"'Cause we asked for it, we know," Lincoln answered. "Okay, before we start asking, how much do you know about Lincolnism?"

Carol folded her arms.

"I know things you most likely don't."

Clyde folded his arms.

"Fine, but do you know things that I don't?"

Carol rolled her eyes.

"If I say I know things you probably don't, how does vaguely asking if I know things you don't disprove of it?"

"Yeah, Clyde, that's unnecessarily vague. At least you could tell us what you know and how you know that stuff."

Clyde smiled.

"Well, you could say a little bird told me about it."

* * *

The duo were at Paige's bedroom, where the latter looked through the window with a worried look, while the former read a book, not paying attention to anything else.

That is, until Mabel asked something.

"Are you really sure it was a good idea to readily betray Cristina like that? I mean, she's... kinda dangerous. Not sure if she's up to par with the progenitors, but she's still a credible threat."

Paige closed the book and threw it at the side.

"Cristina's the patron saint of backstabbing: She probably betrayed us as soon as she asked us to look for Ronnie Anne."

She put her arms behind her head and rested on her bed.

"In my opinion, it's time she gets a taste of her own medicine."

Mabel twiddled her fingers.

"Even still, don't you feel like you just invited her to attack us?"

Paige rolled her eyes.

"She ascended to godhood just flaunt her own ego, and even then, she'd rather send some lackeys than do the deal herself. We got nothing to worry about."

And as Mabel closed the doors, a figure from afar watched the scene going through the window, their eyes glowing pink as they narrowed them in disapproval.


	47. Crystal Motivation

**Today the Steven Universe Movie is going to release, so to celebrate, I decided to uploaf a chapter of chaind reality early. I even decided not to include a next chapter preview so you could focus on the Movie!**

 **And I realize I just broke my promise to wait for Hope before postinf again...**

 **I'm the worst, aren't I? XD**

 **Now, the reviews:**

 **1) Nobody245:**

 *** Millions of years of crushing solitude can do things to you, man.**

 *** She isn't. She's absent from the initial line-up in the introduction arc, her caste is basically a rarity in Lincolnism, the idea is that they don't get along.**

 *** In Lori and Leni's case, Proto-Leni and Proto-Lori can shut them up literally anytime, so they don't want to take any chances. As for Carol, she only knows so much.**

 **2) Observsnt Guest:**

 *** Yeah, it'll take a while...**

 *** Interesting, I never heard such news before.**

 *** Maybe Bobby's named after another parent from the father side? And yeah, Arturo will appear, I can assure you.**

 *** Leni got off easy.**

 *** And as such, all of the main trio know about Lincolnism. Wonder how they feel about that?**

 *** And now you get that sense of suspense again. And maybe next time too, if things go down a certain way.**

 **3) ChernoMan: The last chapter or Epilogue chapter of the Proto-Lucy arc showed the parents getting blueprints and coordinates from the monitor, and them showing them to Lisa. Also, come on, it's a rocket, it's space, it had to be Lisa.**

 **And now, the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode: 47: An Empathic Motivation! Could the Cure be in Outer Space?!**

* * *

Another day of peace in Royal Woods prospered as the little princess of the Loud House, Lola Loud, went outside to check the mailbox. Just in time to witness a certain posing newspaper girl riding by.

"Hey, newspaper girl!" Lola called. "Do you have any mail for the Loud family!"

"Let me check!"

The newspaper girl checked her inventory, humming and posing as she checked each individual letter, the posing getting more and more ridiculous for every individual letter checked.

"Um, is that posing really necessary?"

"Don't judge me, I have to do something to make this mundane job more exciting!" the newspaper girl answered. "And also, I got a couple of letters for the Loud House!"

The girl threw the latters to Lola, who, having only hand, only managed to grab one while the other ones hit the floor.

The newspaper girl rode off as Lola tried her hardest to grab the remaining letters, only for a certain pair of hands to grab them.

A pair of hands Lola could quickly recognize.

"Leni?"

The princess looked up and saw Leni standing nearby, sporting a smile.

"I sensed some bizarre posing nearby, and I thought I could get the poser to help me model some new outfits I made. Sadly, it seems I got here too late."

"Well, you can take those letters back with you if you want: I got mine here."

Leni quickly scanned the letters. "And I can't find any other letter for you here, so I'm going to go back inside."

With that said, Leni walked back inside as she spoke.

"Junk, junk, restraining order, junk..."

And Lola was left alone to open the letter with her teeth and read it to herself.

* * *

 _Dear Lola,_

 _As both a conmemoration of the city's survival of the zombie apocalypse, and also to bring our fellow beauty contestants a sense of relief, I'm going to be hosting a tea party later today._

 _I just need you to show up and use some of your crystal abilities or whatever to put up a show to entertain the other girls._

 _And yes, you can bring a friend or two with you._

 _By the way, you do know how to use your powers to put up a show, right?_

 _Wait, you can't answer right here, and even if you could, I'd need to get the letter sent back. My bad._

 _Anyway, point is, I hope you can come to the tea party. I'm sure everybody needs to relax after what happened._

 _With love, Lindsey Sweetwater._

* * *

"To think we'd ever reach the point where we'd send something other than challenging letters to each other," Lola said as she crumbled the paper and saved it in her pocket. "But, can I really put up a show alone?"

Just then, Lola got an idea, prompting her to snap her fingers.

"Wait a minute, I don't need to do it alone! I know exactly who to bring to put up a show!"

 ** _Luna and Luan's Bedroom..._**

"You... want me to come with you to a tea party?"

That line was said by Luan to Lola as the two sat on Luna's bed, the rockstar tuning her guitar nearby.

"Lindsey Sweetwater invited me to a tea party, and she wants me to try put up a show in order to make the other beauty pageant goers some sense of relief! You know, since the zombie apocalypse caused everybody all kinds of discomfort," Lola explained with a shrug. "And since you have much more experience performing at parties, I thought we could put up a two-woman show in order to entertain everyone."

"And who knows, maybe you can even fuse to floor everyone with the combination," Luna jokingly spoke.

Lola and Luan hummed and scratched their chins.

"Just 'cause I'm saying you _could_ doesn't mean you _should_!"

The girls frowned.

"And besides," Luna continued. "Don't you think they're going to find it weird? I mean, you're Lola Loud, the princess of the house: wouldn't you rather make the show a one-woman show instead?"

"You do have a point, if we were talking about the old me, I would've opten for a one-woman show instead," Lola smiled. "But again, that was the old me: back before I became an angel and then a god while fighting against my tyrannical, genocidal prototype counterpart."

"If you had said that over a month earlier, I'd have called it a very strange sentence," Luna remarked. "I mean, it still is, but it's relatively tame compared to everything else we've faced."

Lola turned back to Luan. "And besides, it'll give you a chance to once again have the feeling of cheering someone up: the feeling you... kinda sorta lost when my, Lana, and Lucy's counterparts attacked us."

Luan scratched her chin and looked at the ceiling. "You do have a point: I haven't felt that since... what happened with Lucy at the beach."

"I think you should go."

Everybody turned around and saw Lucy enter the room, wearing her blindfold while she held onto the doorframe.

"Lucy!" Luan exclaimed. "What have I told you about walking around without perfecting your aura vision!"

"Aura what-now?" Luna asked.

"Yeah, at least you could use a cane or something!" Lola said as she ran up to the goth and wrapped her arm around her. "In fact, what are you doing alone? Wasn't Lana watching over you?"

"She was, but I managed to walk away since my footsteps stopped making sound somehow."

Luna raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Oh really?"

To prove her statement correct, Lucy grabbed Luan's hand and began walking back and forth, with no sound coming whatsoever.

"Hmm, interesting, I figured I'd be the one to have the ability to walk without making noise, what with sound being my main theme and all," Luna remarked, scratching her chin. "Then again, Lucy's always been able to appear without making her presence known before..."

"And this only means everybody needs to look after you better!" Luan stated. "Does Lana know you left?"

"Yeah, she's the one who suggested me to go see you," Lucy answered with a little nod. "She figured you were going to debate whether to look after me or try to cheer up, and since she's a bit uncomfortable with how sad you've been... well, you get the rest."

Luan narrowed her eyes.

 _I'll have a long talk with Lana once this is over!_

Then she turned to Lucy and frowned.

"What if something happens to you while I'm away?!"

"Relax, Luan: the rest of our sisters are here, Lincoln is paying attention, and Royal Woods is currently on a state of constant peace," Lucy replied with a calm tone. "You have nothing to worry about!"

"That is until I take my eyes off you and go with Lola to the party, that's when I'll have something to worry about! And don't even try to say otherwise, 'cause that's always how it happens!"

Just then, Luna put her instrument beside her and stood up.

"Dude, think of it like this: you either go with Lola to relive one of your past hobbies, and probably get on the way of going back to the cheerful prankster you used to be, or you rot away inside the house, watching over a family member everybody else and the pets are going to be looking after anyway."

Luan flinched at the statement, surprised that Luna would bring up something like that out of nowhere, but understanding what she was trying to say: this was her chance to try and cheer not only herself up, but also the girls who were probably left mentally scarred from the zombie apocalypse.

So she looked around;

Luna folded her arms and looked at her sternly.

Lola shrugged with a smile, not sure what to say.

Then she looked at Lucy, who smiled and nodded, urging Luan to go.

And, for some reason, Luan felt an unknown presence around, urging her to go.

"Fine, I'll go with Lola, but I need some time to prepare."

"That's okay, I'll need to prepare too," Lola snapped her fingers. "Hey, maybe we could prepare at my and Lana's bedroom? It would also let you bring Lucy back to Lana."

"That sounds good."

Luan turned to Lucy.

"Are you okay with that?"

"Yeah, sure."

So, with that said, the trio of Lucy, Luan, and Lola left Luna and Luan's bedroom, closing the door just as Luna went back to her guitar.

Although, she only managed to make a few more fixes to it before she turned to the presence Luan felt.

This turned out to be none other than Lori, sitting on top of a tree branch, looking straight at Luna with a little smile.

Luna closed her eyes.

"The others have already left, you don't have to keep hiding."

And once she opened them again, Lori was in front of her, face-to-face.

"Who says I'm hiding?"

Luna remained calm, or at least tried to, as she gripped her guitar tightly and stood up along with Lori, the sisters not taking their eyes off each other as they did.

"A good leader knows when to put her hand down and give her subordinates a tough choice," Lori remarked before beaming a smile. "I'm glad you managed to do that."

Luna narrowed her eyes. "I didn't do it for your approval."

"That's even better," Lori clasped her hands while Luna walked past her. "Doing things just to get another person's approval is, like, such a selfish thing to do, you know? If only more people did what they have to do, just to do the right thing, everything would run much more smoothly, you know?"

Luna stopped and turned around.

"Dude, miss me with that nonsense."

She lifted her instrument and aimed it at her sister.

"How about you cut it out and take off the wig, Leni?"

"Lori" remained silent for a few minutes, then turned around and faced Luna with half-open eyes, revealing Leni's eyes color.

"So, you saw through my disguise?"

Luna remained silent as Leni snapped her fingers, turning her figure from Lori back into her natural look.

Even the clothes changed.

"Okay, before you say anything else, just let me ask: how did you even know it was me?"

"Pretty simple, actually: you weren't acting like Lori there," Luna answered, folding her arms. "You remained at the sidelines and watched the events unfold, when from what I gather, Lori prefers a more direct approach. And even if she were to watch things happen, I'm pretty sure we both know she'd at least like to be present, rather than hidden in the shadows."

"You sound extraordinarily upset, for some reason," Leni frowned. "Did something happen yesterday?"

Luna looked elsewhere. "Just Sam being a general pain in the bum."

Leni fought the urge to smile. "So, you're starting to see Sam for who she really is?"

"Yeah, truth be told, I can't believe I went for so long thinking that she was such a good girl," Luna scratched the back of her head and glanced at Leni. "Ever since the zombie apocalypse, she's been showing her true colors more and more, it's as if she doesn't even bother to cover up her rough edges anymore."

Luna shrugged.

"In fact, I think I may even break up with her soon."

Leni looked at Luna for a moment, then smiled and let out a giggle.

"You're light years away from being able to manipulate me, Luna Lennon Loud, let alone lie convincingly."

Luna snapped her fingers.

"So, you really are smarter than you look. I'll need to step up my game if I'm ever stuck in a situation where I need to lie my way out of it. However, I wasn't lying about one thing."

Leni raised an eyebrow.

"Something's been bothering me since the zombie apocalypse."

Leni walked to Luan's bed and sat down, crossing her legs before gesturing the rockstar to go on.

"If you remember, a long time ago, I signed up to work with a pair of music executives, to try and strike it big. It was the day where life suddenly became a musical."

Leni scratched her forehead.

"I'm still wondering what was that day all about. You subconsciously using your powers, perhaps? I don't know."

Luna shook her head.

"Maybe, but that's not the point. While I was being transformed into a cheap idol for what they thought would be "more popular," I eventually became known as a pink-haired sellout called Lulu."

Luna lowered her head.

"And somehow... my counterpart knew about her."

"Yes, I believe you showed yourself to be rather concerned about it before," Leni scratched her chin. "Let me guess, you're bothered by the fact you can't think of a reason for how she could know about her?"

"No, I can't think of a single reason for her to be able to do so!" Luna sighed. "I mean, for all we know, she just appeared over a month ago: how could she, in that little time, find out about an identity I took and then quickly got rid off?!"

"Well, you're being a bit narrow-minded; a month is a pretty long time to find out about things," Leni remarked. "And besides, wasn't "Lulu" heavily promoted by those executives?"

"She was promoted, yeah, but I don't think it was to the extent that an ancient, interdimensional deity could have heard about her. And besides, you know how the media works: as soon as something popular ends, they'll go for the next big thing and forget about what was big a moment ago."

"So by that logic, you claim that Lulu should've become nothing more than a memory of the past once her time on the spotlight ended?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, Luna, maybe you, like, aren't thinking about the real question here. What you should be asking is, does "Lulu" exist as her own being out there?"

Luna's eyes widened.

"What are you suggesting?"

"You know about Leia, right? The girl who claims to be the daughter of Lincoln and Lola? Think about it: she technically can't exist in this dimension, because Lincoln and Lola are still far too young to bear children. Therefore, what could be the logical explanation for her being present?"

Luna thought about it, and gasped.

"She's from another dimension!"

"And she's also part of the progenitors' forces. Your counterpart, of course, being one of the progenitors."

"So what you're trying to suggest is that my counterpart knows about Lulu is because she went to another dimension where she was her own person, and recruited her?"

Leni shrugged with a smile.

"It's a possibility worth thinking about it, don't you think?"

With that said, Leni stood up and walked to the door.

"Anyway, I hope that helps you somehow. I have to go deal with some other stuff-"

"Wait!" Luna exclaimed. "Before you go, I want to ask you: where's Lori?"

Leni hummed, then put her index and middle finger to her forehead, and tried to use omnipresence to locate her.

However, once she did, she opened her eyes and looked shocked before she calmed down.

"It seems she might be somewhere beyond Earth, because I can't sense her."

"You can't sense her because she's not on Earth?"

Luna lowered her head.

"If shes not on Earth, then were could she be?"

 _ **Briefly with Lori...**_

The oldest Loud sister, sporting purple pupils, flew in the fringes of outer space, the large image of a light blue bird glowing behind her.

She was wearing a light blue business suit, whose red tie she was fixing at the moment.

 _I sure hope this is good enough for her. I mean, I know in space, nobody can see you wear a half-baked suit, but I'm not taking any chances._

And then she stopped and looked at a peculiar planet.

Not only was it mostly purple in color, but the music coming from it could be heard from Lori's short distance, and it also had a large sign reading "Tokyo" above it.

Lori smiled and flew towards the planet.

 _I guess taking a little breather before getting to work wouldn't hurt anybody._

 _ **Back with Lola and Luan...**_

The pair of entertainers walked to the Sweetwater Mansion, Lola taking the lead while Luan adjusted her magician's hat, a little addition to her magic-themed costume.

"I didn't think you were going to go to the tea party as a magician, Luan," Lola remarked. "In fact, I don't remember you ever working as a magician before."

"I'm a girl of many talents, Lola; although, I haven't performed my magic tricks for a long time either, so I wouldn't blame you for not knowing about it," Luan sighed. "Anyway, I'm going like this because, since I'm going to try something I haven't done in a while, I thought it would be fitting to do so while being a magician. Something simple like that."

Once the duo arrived at the mansion's gates, they were scanned by the machine, which beeped upon seeing Lola. The gates then opened, and the pair continued to talk as they headed inside.

"So, Luan, what acts do you have in mind? I'm thinking my crystals could be used as a little add-on for special effects, but I can't think of any act myself."

"You're in luck, I prepared a couple of potential acts we could do," Luan said as she took off her hat, and took out a list from it. "Taking rabbits out of my hat, creating balloon animals, the classic juggling technique-"

Lola chuckled. "Did you prepare yourself for a tea party or the birthday party of a young kid?"

"Hey, maybe one of those beauty contestants has their birthday today," Luan replied, adjusting her hat. "And besides, it never hurts to go back with the classics."

Once at the door, Lola knocked it three times, and Chandler was the one to open it.

"Oh, you're here," he remarked casually. "Lindsey was waiting for you. She's over the living room, with the rest of her friends."

"Wow, they're already here?!" Lola asked. "I guess we should better meet them right now, huh?"

"By the way, no hard feelings over what happened over a month ago, right?"

"Nah, don't worry about it, I kinda deserved it."

Luan raised an eyebrow at the statement, but decided to ignore it as she and Lola went forward to the living room, expecting to find Lindsey alongside a dozen girls in a normal living room.

Instead, they found Lindsey and a dozen girls in an overly pink, princess-themed living room, with Lindsey sitting as a princess while Greg-yeah, remember him?-sat next to her as a king.

"Lola!"

The princess, recognizing the voice, smiled and turned around to see a brunette girl with a pink dress running up to her.

"Roxanne!" Lola chirped as she and the girl hugged. "What are you doing here?!"

"Lindsey sent me an invitation, and since she said you'd be coming, I thought it wouldn't hurt to leave my level of the dungeons unsupervised for a moment," Roxanne answered as she and Lola separated. "I hope you don't mind."

Lola blinked twice.

"What dungeons are you talking about?"

Roxanne tilted her head next.

"You don't know? The-"

"Lola!"

The princess turned around and saw Lindsey waving hello at her. This prompted Lola to walk up to her, leaving Roxanne behind to look at Luan as the comedian prepared to begin her comedy act.

"I'm glad you came," Lindsey said. "And it seems you brought one of your sisters with you."

"Yeah, I thought Luan needed to cheer people up like she used to," Lola said as she turned to see Luan's act. "She's been pretty sad lately, so I thought this would help her return to her cheerful self."

Luan stood in front of the other girls, with Roxanne handing her a microphone to properly begin.

"Alright, let's start with a mediocre joke: what do you call an apple that grew on a pine tree?"

Silence...

"A pineapple!"

A faint, yellow aura came out of Luan as she winked and took out her tongue at the side of her mouth, followed by the princesses and Lindsey laughing out loud.

Greg and Lola, however, remained fairly unfazed.

"I got it!" Lindsey chirped. "If that's mediocre by her standards, I can't wait to see what she thinks is good!"

"You... actually found it funny?" Lola inquired. "When Luan says a pun in our house, we usually cringe at it."

Lindsey raised an eyebrow, as if finding it confusing that the Louds wouldn't find Luan's jokes funny.

Lola then went to Greg's side, getting his attention.

"Okay, I have a pair of questions for you: where's Mr. Universe, and why didn't you laugh at Luan's joke?"

"I've been through so much stuff, only some very funny stuff can get a laugh out of me," Greg sighed. "As for where is Mr. Universe-"

"He's resting."

The duo turned and saw Mrs. Santiago walking towards them, her arms folded behind her back.

"And I need to talk with you for a moment, Lola."

Lola blinked and raised an eyebrow, only to follow Mrs. Santiago to an area of the mansion far away from the living room.

"You're the school's nurse, right?" Lola inquired, turning to the nurse. "What was your name, Mrs. Ronnie Anne's Mother?"

"No, that's what... Three unfortunate casualties used to call me, so I'd rather not be called that," Mrs. Santiago somberly answered. "I'm Maria Santiago, Ronnie Anne's mother."

"Oh right, that was going to be my other guess!" Lola chirped. "What are you doing here?"

"Paying a visit to Mr. Universe; Believe it or not, he's not been feeling well lately, so I stop here to check on him every once in a while."

Then, Mrs. Santiago got an idea.

"Although, to be honest, I'm more concerned for his daughter."

Lola's eyes widened.

"Lindsey? W-Why are you concerned for her? Is she in danger something?"

Mrs. Santiago briefly smiled degiously before she frowned, crouched down, and put her hand on Lola's head.

"Do you know the reason why Lindsey needed a facial reconstruction surgery?"

"Y-Yes, she just told me: Due to a misunderstanding, she fought with Lisa thinking she's help me cheat, an explosion happened, and her face was disfigured."

Mrs. Santiago sighed.

"It might have done more than that."

The woman extended her hand towards Lola, who grabbed it as Mrs. Santiago's gauntlet's light blue and turquoise gem glew before she snapped her fingers, teleporting herself and Lola into the containment facility of the organization.

Luckily, the bodies of those who died here had been moved a long time ago.

"W-Where are we?"

"In a containment facility," Mrs. Santiago sternly answered. "One used to house not only problematic individuals, but also people who have had the misfortune of being... mutated or corrupted."

"Okay, I know what you mean by corrupted," Lola frowned. "But what do you mean by "mutated"?"

Mrs. Santiago sighed and walked up to one of the cells, which she knocked three times before a beast roared, and revealed themselves.

They looked like a certain car racer, even down to the outfit, only now sporting a long, black tail ending on a stinger, and rather visible fangs, alongside a distinctively more primal attitude.

"This is Bobbie Fletcher, famous car racer in Royal Woods. She " voluntered" to be part of one of your sister's experiments, and after feeling normal for a week, she grew more and more feral and... Twisted, until she assumed this form."

"She can't speak, she can't walk on two legs, but she is aware of her surroundings, judging by behavior she's shown at times."

Lola's took a step back.

"Lindsey's going to turn into this if she's not cured?!"

Mrs. Santiago shrugged.

"She could turn into this, or turn into something else. Nobody can ever be sure what'll happen when science is involved."

Lola turned back to the mutant woman, and it was in that instant that she came to a conclusion:

She needed to talk with Lisa right away.

"Mrs. Ronnie Anne's Mother-"

"Again, please don't call me that," Mrs. Santiago sighed. "It brings back bad memories."

"Right, sorry," Lola turned to the woman. "Can you take me back home?"

Mrs. Santiago paused as if to process the girl's request, but obliged and teleported the two of them out of the facility, and into the backyard, before Mrs. Santiago teleported herself back to the Sweetwater Mansion.

One trip to the tree's interior later, Lola came out of the elevator and took a couple steps forward, a stern expression on her face.

"Lisa, we have to talk. I know you're probably busy with something, like always, but if you could just spare a few minutes to hear me out, I'd appreciate it."

Lisa, who was playing chess with Lily, and apparently losing, looked at Lola with a confused look before she turned to Lily, who had no objections to put the game on hold.

"Fine, but make it quick," the scientist replied. "I got a couple projects to finish."

"Trust me, it won't take long."

A few minutes later, the duo found themselves sitting on a desk, Lisa listening intently to her sister's explanation.

"So, let me get this straight: your beauty pageant rival claims to have seen you conspiring with me in order to help you win, but also that we engaged in a confrontation that ended with her taking the brunt of an explosion, leaving her in need of a face surgery?"

"That's the gist of it, yeah-"

Lisa slammed her fist down the table.

"That's ridiculous! Absurd! I mean, the part where she and I met and an explosion happened is true, but the part of me conspiring with you is completely fabricated!"

"I do believe that too, but we need proof, and that's what I want to talk with you about-"

"Science is something that could potentially open doors to the evolution of our species! All of my experiments are done with the purpose of both satisfying my own curiosity, and also find a way to open these doors! I wouldn't waste time helping you cheat at a beauty pageant!"

"Lisa?"

"The very concept of me conspiring with you is nonsensical from the start: I'm not interested in beauty pageants, nor any of those traditionally feminine roles, I can't even stomach the thought of going there myself!"

"Lisa..."

"And besides, the very idea of you asking me for help doesn't hold up: you have connections everywhere, so unless something happened to those connections, you most likely wouldn't even think about me-"

Lola generated her crystal arm, aimed it at a wall, and shot a beam at it, crystalizing part of it.

"W-Wait, what are you doing!?"

Lola snapped her fingers, and the crystal disappeared.

"Getting your dang attention! And now that I have it, will you hear me out!?"

"Yes, I will! Just don't do that again!" Lisa narrowed her eyes. "The last thing I need you to do is turn my laboratory into an igloo!"

Lola paused for a moment, then scratched her chin.

"Could I turn it into an igloo?"

"Stay focused! What were you saying?"

"Right: listen, we both know the first event, the one of you and I conspiring together, never happened, but as far as Lindsey knows that could've very well been a reality. If we want to prove to not only her, but also any potential, pesky reporter who may want to hear the news-"

"We're going to need proof," Lisa clasped her fingers together. "Something like a testimoney or confession confirming that the people she saw weren't us."

"Yeah, exactly," Lola frowned. "But the reason I'm bringing this up is something else."

"What is it?"

"Well, you remember how your brain turned all green and glowing thanks to... what did you call it?"

"You believe Lindsey might've been affected by the radiation of my project?" Lisa folded her arms. "Do you have any proof confirming it?"

Lola shrugged. "Do you have any proof denying it?"

Lisa paused.

"Touche. So, you want me to make an antidote for it? Sorry to tell you, but I don't have time for it: I have to finish the project for our parental units-"

Lola smirked.

"Why is why I have a proposal: once you finish building whatever you do, I'm sure you'll have a laboratory to work on, right? Use that laboratory to work on an antidote!"

"And here I thought the beauty contest fiasco would teach you a thing or two about far-fetched assumptions: I may have a lab, but I have more important things to do than make an antidote for something that could very well not exist."

Lisa stood up and walked away.

"In short, the answer is no: if you want to use my laboratory to try make an antidote yourself, be my guest. But I have more important things to do!"

Lisa took a couple steps as Lola stood up, but as she walked back to continue her game with Lily, Lola stomped the ground strongly, causing the whole laboratory to be covered in a pink crystal.

Luckily, though, Lily was unaffected.

Unfortunately, the chess game was affected.

Shortly after, Lisa glared at Lola, who put her arm on her hip as she looked sternly at the scientist.

"What did you do!?"

"I did the same thing I did back in the beauty pageant by accident: I encased this entire place in a crystallized prison, only this time, not only can I do it intentional, but I also know how to undo it."

"Then undo it at once!"

Lola scoffed.

"You think I'm going to do it just like that? I want something in return, and I'm pretty sure you know what I want."

Lisa rubbed her forehead in frustration. "Come on, you can't be serious!"

"Make the antidote."

"I need to focus on the parental units' project-"

"Make the antidote!"

"I already told you that you're free to try make an antidote yourself! Isn't that good enough for you!?"

"Make the antidote, or the three of us are going to stay this forever!"

Lisa gritted her teeth and transformed one of her arms into an arm cannon.

"I have a better idea."

Lisa aimed the cannon at Lola.

"How about I beat you up to cancel this prison!?"

Lola swayed her hair to her right.

"You're welcomed to try."

Lisa charged her arm cannon and shot a green energy blast at Lola, who raised a crystal from the ground just in time for it to deflect it, with the shot bouncing all around the rest of the crystal until it hit Lisa back, dealing minimal damage.

After that, Lola grabbed the crystal, ripped it from the ground, and smashed it to reduce it into the form of a weapon: A staff, to be precise.

With the weapon now in hand, Lola ran up to Lisa and swung the crystal staff repeatedly, only managing to get a couple hits on the scientist before she activated her jet shoes and flew away.

This made Lola ditch the staff and move her hand to shoot some shards up in the air at Lisa, who managed to dodge most of them until one shard hit her foot, not only damaging the jet, but also stabbing her, causing the scientist to cry in pain.

Lisa fell right into Lola's arms, and took some deep breaths as the princess took off the shard, only finding a small pint of blood on the top.

"It didn't even land that deep inside-"

Suddenly, an energy beam nearly struck Lola, only for her hair to be hit instead.

The energy beam came from Lisa, of course, as she readied another beam until Lola covered the cannon with a crystal, causing it to explode and send Lisa flying back until she hit a flat wall.

Rather than gorily losing her hand as expected, though, the explosion simply brought it back to normal, just in time for an exasperated Lola to walk up to the scientist.

"Are you ready to accept the proposal now?"

"No! All you did was beat me up! That doesn't give me any obligation whatsoever to consider what you said!" Lisa snapped as she dusted herself. "If anything, the only thing you've proven is that you can still be very stubborn when you want to get something!"

"Tragedy at the Royal Woods Beauty Pageant: From Beauty Contest to Horror Contest."

Lisa rolled her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"The witnesses claim that one of the beauty pageant's participants, Lindsey Sweetwater, suddenly presented symptoms of immense pain before transforming into a mindless monster. In this mindless state, the contestant in jured over a dozen people, though luckily none were killed."

"Hey, I'm talking to you!"

"The contestant was successfully subdued and taken to a safer location, and once taken, had reverted to a hybrid form between her monster and human one-"

"Stop ignoring me!" Lisa snapped. "What are you saying all of a sudden!?"

"Oh, nothing, just thinking about what the newspaper will say the day that Lindsey succumbs to whatever is infecting her," Lola sternly answered. "Something you should really consider if you don't want to end up with a tainted reputation at best, or a lifetime in prison at worst."

Lisa's eyes widened, but before she could ask Lola what she meant, the princess continued.

"According to Lindsey's testimony, the result of her transformation was more than likely due to an untreated infection created from unprotected contact with chemicals. She claims this happened during a confrontation between a certain Lisa Loud, after an alleged attempt to stop famous scientist Lisa Loud from helping her sister, Lola Loud, sabotage an important beauty pageant.

"Well, at least you made sure to call me a famous scientist," Lisa proudly stated. "But anyway, what are you trying to get that?"

"Simple: if you don't do anything to fix Lindsey's condition-"

"Assuming she has one-"

"Then eventually she'll succumb to it, and once people investigate about it, you'll be arrested for illegal mutation on a human being."

Lisa, finally realizing the kind of trouble she was in, took a step back and gasped, the gravity of the situation finally made clear to her.

"So, with this in mind, can you really not spare a couple minutes making a cure for Lindsey?"

Lisa narrowed her eyes, then thought about it for a minute as she looked around to remember she was still stuck inside Lola's crystal prison.

So, there was only one answer that could get her out of it.

"Ugh, alright, I get it, I'll do it!"

Lola raised an eyebrow. "You'll do what?"

"I'll make sure to find the time to make an antidote for your friend's condition, while also helping our parental units with their mission!"

Smiling with satisfaction, Lola snapped her fingers, and the crystalized laboratory turned back to normal.

The last thing to turn back to normal being the chess game, causing Lily to smile and clap.

"I'm glad we could come to an agreement."

Lisa blew a raspberry at Lisa.

"Only one more thing before I go: what exactly is this mission you're talking about?"

Lisa looked elsewhere and scratched the back of her head.

"Okay, how do I say this without blowing your mind, or blabbering about it to the rest of our sisters."

"You can't, but then again, I can always just seal this place in crystal until you tell me."

"Even after many humbling experiences, you're still the most devious of us all, aren't you? Fine, I'll tell you, but try to keep calm."

Lola nodded and leaned her ear closer for Lisa to hesitantly whisper.

"Mom, Dad, and a couple other people... are going to go to outer space."


	48. To Infinity

**Hello everyone, Exotos135 here. Guess what, today's my birthday, and I've chosen to update a chapter for you!**

 ***Yays***

 **I still got chapters ready!**

 ***Yays***

 **Ronnie Anne's spinoff's coming soon!**

 ***Yays***

 **And this story is still far from done!**

 ***Crap***

 **But until this story is finished, I hope you guys are happy to continue reading the story. Trust me, there's some good stuff coming.**

 **Anyway, let's answer reviews:**

 **1) Nobody245:**

 *** If you're talking about Loud Sim Date, I think you mean the ghouls? In which case, no, it won't be like that.**

 *** Hahaha, wouldn't that be a thing?**

 *** Because it's the last place not corrupted by communism.**

 **2) Observant Guest:**

 *** I see. What about the friend with magenta hair?**

 *** Even with Character Development, Lola still loves the spotlight. Roxanne is also someone who likes the spotlight, but for a different reason.**

 *** Haha, only. What a funny word.**

 *** Nurse who?**

 *** And here's even more suspense! XD**

 **3) ChernoMan:**

 *** I believe she was at the omakes, the name I gave her was... Danielle. Wow, it's been so long even I'm having trouble remembering stuff. Scary.**

 *** It's the Loud House. With the Loud Family. It's more surprising they haven't gotten one yet.**

 *** I don't remember, but that's likely.**

 *** Don't you mean Proto-[REDACTED]**

 *** What anime reference is that?**

 *** Here's another chapter. Now enjoy genuine months of silence. AHAHAHAHAHAHA!**

 **And now, to the chapter.**

* * *

 **Episode 48: Watching From the Sidelines! The Mission to Space is Set Into Motion!**

* * *

Back at the tokyo planet Lori landed at, the oldest Loud sister walked around the busy streets, taking a look at the scenery while also looking for someone among the... interesting crowd.

If people weren't flying above with bird-like wings, they were walking on the streets, sporting outrageous hairstyles like mohawks, half-shaven hair, and other similarly rocking hairstyles, with odd hair colors to boot.

Their fashion was also rather spunky: tore clothes, sleeveless jackets, ripped pants, chokers, you said it, they probably wore it.

Although a weirder thing than that was that Lori looked completely different from everybody else, and yet she didn't gather a single odd look from them. Almost as if she wasn't even there.

But then, in the middle of her search, Lori stopped and turned around, approaching a poster afterwards.

The poster in question showed Mick Swagger, playing his trusty old guitar, and just generally emphasizing and promoting a concert to be done on his name elsewhere.

Without a second thought, Lori clenched her fist, charged it with electricity, and threw it right at the poster's face, sending shock waves through the wall and finally getting the citizens' attention.

The citizens looked shock for a moment... then clapped and cheered at the action, with Lori barely reacting at them.

"Hey, you!"

The citizens turned around and ran away once they saw the one who said that was none other than Lulu, Luna's pink-haired pop idol... persona-clone-person.

"You're not supposed to attack a Mick Swagger poster like that!" Lulu barked, unaware of who she was talking to. "Any kind of attack at a popular musician's image is punishable by death here in Planet Tokyo!"

"Well, there's not supposed to be a Mick Swagger poster here either!" Lori snapped, shooting a glare at Lulu. "And you're not supposed to care: he's a rock and roll musician, not a pop musician!"

Lulu laughed out loud, fittingly enough.

"Mick Swagger is one of the greatest musicians to ever come from Luna's mind: his picture can be placed anywhere and nobody will bat an eye-"

Lori rolled her eyes and grabbed Lulu's hand.

"Whatever, let's just get going to-"

Lulu slapped Lori's hand away.

"How dare you touch me with your commoner hands!?"

Lori clenched her hand into a fist and slightly lifted her head, revealing sharp, glowing eyes as electricity surged through her, immediately getting Lulu to change her tone.

"O-Okay, I get it, I was being disrespectful, but please don't destroy this place!"

Lori calmed down a little, though some electricity still surged through her.

"Not to mention, we're both needed elsewhere. So if you have something planned now, cancel it, 'cause we're going to Lisapolis."

Lulu's eyes slightly widened, and she and Lori looked up to see the moon of the world.

Which, upon closer inspection, wasn't a moon at all, but the Lisapolis planet itself.

Lori promptly summoned a light blue bird familiar behind her and flew towards the planet, leaving Lulu

"Hey! Wait for me!"

Lulu clenched her fists and a pair of growths emerged from her back, creating a pair of pink, avian wings, which she used to fly to the planet as well.

 ** _Lisapolis, Throne Room..._**

After a short flight, Lori and Lulu literally crashed through the window and landed on the ground, Lori managing to catch herself after spinning once, while Lulu continued to crash and spin until she stopped over some tubes, each containing a growing entity inside of them.

Lori glanced at the crash, and rolled her eyes as she stood up and dusted herself.

"I'm glad you could come."

Lori looked at the throne, which lit up to reveal none other than Proto-Lisa sitting on top of it, stroking something that could only be described as a cyborg mice-cat hybrid.

"Lori Loud."

"Using my new name instead of my divine name?" Lori scoffed, saving her hands on her pockets. "I thought we weren't that close yet."

"We both know that as an angel, you have a million names that are neither correct or incorrect," Proto-Lisa stated as she put the cyborg mice-cat down. "I'm not someone who likes to waste her time trying to be as correct as possible, so I might as well use your new name instead."

Proto-Lisa briefly scanned her surroundings. "Where's Lulu? Don't tell me she's wasting her time trying to venerate Rick Stammer or whatever his name is."

"She crash-landed with the inactive Lulus over there," Lori answered, pointing at the spot Lulu crashed in. "I think your little "ex-pet-iment" is getting her right now."

The cyborg mice-cat carried Lulu on its back, then dropped her next to Lori. She stood up and dusted herself, throwing a glare at Lori as she snapped.

"Don't you dare say anything!"

Lulu glanced at the capsules containing the Lisa lookalikes, and winced in disgust.

"Ugh, to think those plain, drab things have the same name as me, and that they were nearly on top of me-"

" _You_ have the same name as _them_ ," Lori stated. "Right fact, wrong order."

"Who cares about the order when it's clear that the best Lulu has already been released, and yet this "Proto-Lisa" insists on making pointless clones?" Lulu folded her arms. "Speaking of which, why are there so many of these still incubating?"

"They may be superpowered aliens, but they can also be quite fragile if hit by enough force," Proto-Lisa answered with a stern tone. "Especially if we're talking about divine creatures like my descendant and Lincoln."

Lori lightly flinched and clutched her stomach at the mention of Lincoln's name, something Lulu quickly noticed.

"Oh, did I just see the supposedly all-powerful Lori _flinching_ at the mention of her brother?" Lulu clasped her hands with a smile. "Is poor wittle Lowi scared that her bwother is going to get angry at her?"

Lori narrowed her eyes and took a short breath. "No, I'm just thinking about how Lincoln once told me something so awful, that Luna had to block it with her rock music. Which was definitely music to my ears compared to Mick Swagger's drab noise."

Lulu immediately got furious. "You're one to talk!"

"And you're one to exist."

Lulu gritted her teeth as Lori flashed a smug smile.

"Okay you two, stop fighting: as much as I would like to see one of you destroy the other, I'm afraid that someone is still needed," Proto-Lisa sternly stated. "Lori, can you provide us with a screen of what's going on back on Earth?"

"Sure," Lori parted her hair and revealed her birthmark. "Just give me a second."

Lori put her index and middle finger close to her forehead birthmark and put her free hand on front, earning a raised eyebrow from Proto-Lisa and an exasperated look from Lulu.

The birthmark began glowing, and from it a rectangular screen was generated, a screen that showed static for a moment before it showed a familiar scene, right on the Loud backyard.

* * *

Lisa, Lily, Lola, and the Loud parents stood in the backyard, looking over the finished spacecraft hidden by a white sheet.

"Well, it certainly took a while, but I can proudly say that this spacecraft is finished and ready to work!" Lisa took out her phone and wrote a message. "Now, time to inform the rest of our siblings about this."

Lisa sent the message, and Lola's phone rang, the princess answering it with a deadpan look to reveal the message on her phone. "What was the point of sending me the message if I'm right here?"

Lisa flashed a nervous smile and laughed. "Just a little miscalculation. What matters right now is that our siblings get the message... and now that I bring that up, where are they?"

"They could be testing their divine weapons."

It took Lola and Lisa a second to process the statement, causing them to look at Rita and Lynn Sr. as they explained.

"Your brother asked us to show him the templates for the other signature, divine weapons of your siblings, and once we did, he gave us some of his blood and we did the rest."

"So those weapons were made with Lincoln's blood?" Lisa sighed, then snapped her fingers. "You know, now that I think about it, there's something I want to ask."

Lola raised an eyebrow. "How much blood was used to make the weapons?"

"No! Where's _my_ weapon?!" Lisa stomped the ground. "You can't just create a super weapon from a god's blood and not let me see it!"

"If we had shown you your weapon from the start, you wouldn't have focused your efforts on the spacecrat," Rita explained, folding her arms. "And considering how you act with any new piece of technology you find, it would've been forever before you finished it."

"Well, now that it's finished, what reason do you have to keep it a secret?" Lisa tapped the ground. "Show it to me now!"

Rita and Lynn Sr. exchanged looks, and as they reached for their backs, they could only wonder how the other siblings were doing with their weapons...

* * *

The horses of the farm ran wildly all over the place, while a figure stood on top of the hill and looked over them.

This figure was Lana, who reached for her back and took out her divine weapon: a golden lasso that she spun around, then threw in the air before it split into several copies, each managing to catch the horses and tie them in place.

However, the tied horses still tried to free themselves and move in a frenzy, prompting Lana to jump to one of them and put her hand on his head as she whispered.

"Calm down, buddy, it's okay now."

A blue aura enveloped the horse, and it slowly calmed down until Lana took off her hand, and went on to do the same with the other horses.

With all the equine creatures calmed down, Lana untied them, helped them stand up, and guided them back to the barn as Liam's Grandmother watched over her, with Claire and Skippy helping with the other frenzied animals, like the pigs and the sheep.

A few minutes later, the girls and Skippy reunited with the woman.

"And that should be the last of the frenzied animals, ma'am," Lana stated.

"Thanks a lot for helping me calm down the animals, children," the woman spoke with a little smile. "I'm so old I can't turn into anything other than a dinosaur, and that would only freak them out even more."

"We're always happy to help you," Skippy replied, scratching the back of his head with a sheepish look. "And besides, this is the least I can do after not doing anything in... well, you know."

"The zombie apocalypse? Yeah, it really is the least you can do," Claire pointed out, folding her arms as she and Watterson gave the boy a disapproving look. "Where exactly were you when all that stuff happened, again?"

Skippy twiddled his fingers. "I was stuck outside of Royal Woods because I was needed elsewhere-"

"Throw that bone to another dog!" Claire snapped, slapping Skippy. "If I could spare a couple seconds to turn those zombies into pure bones, surely you could've spent a minute helping me!"

"Alright you two," Lana immediately got between the pair and separated them. "Listen, we just gathered the animals and calmed them down, we shouldn't risk freaking them again by fighting with each other."

"But he-!"

Lana narrowed her eyes. "Claire, please, let this go for now."

Claire, feeling a chill go down her spine from Lana's stare, clenched her fist and calmed down... long enough to fold her arms and snap at Skippy:

"You're lucky you're Lana's pet!"

Claire blew a raspberry and turned away, while Skippy and Lana exchanged raised eyebrows.

"Please forgive Claire for how she acted, miss," Lana told Liam's Grandma. "I don't know why, but she's been pretty angry lately."

"It's okay, sweetie, Hattie was pretty angry too," the woman answered. "I'm just happy there was someone nice enough to help

"It's a pleasure, ma'am," Lana tipped her hat. "Anyway, is there anything else you need to do? Before I leave, that is."

The woman frowned.

"Lana, Grandma here lost her grandson and niece during the zombie apocalypse, you may want to watch your words a bit," Claire sternly remarked. "If you're giving her false hope so she'll die from sadness, then I appreciate the effort, but you could try something less jerkish first."

Lana flinched.

"I'm not that cruel! I was just asking to see if I could help while also working on one of my abilities!"

Skippy folded his arms. "And how do you plan to do that?"

Lana smiled and tipped her hat.

Next thing Skippy and Claire knew, they stood at the sidelines as Lana, transformed into a blonde German Shepherd, her clothes laying next to them.

"To think an ordinary caste member could keep his clothes from ripping off, while the matriarch of the caste needs to go naked to do so," Claire said with a slight chuckle. "That's... kinda funny."

Suddenly, Lana's overalls began shaking, prompting Skippy to grab the source of the shaking: Lana's ringing phone.

* * *

At the station of purgatory, Lynn Loud leaned against a wall of the station, arms folded as she waited for the train to arrive, only to be joined by a peculiar trio a moment later.

This trio were, of course, the biker trio, whose halos were... orange, for some reason.

"Fire Feet! Fire Feet!"

"Oh hey, it's you three again," Lynn remarked as she got off the wall and walked up to the toddlers. "Didn't I tell you not to call me Fire Feet?"

"Yeah, but since you're Sweet Feet's sister, we thought you could use a nickname, just like him!" Ronnie chirped, Mindy and Cindy nodding in agreement.

"Well, okay then, more power to you," Lynn saved her hands on her pockets. "But don't you think you could give me something that's not feet related?"

The toddlers hummed to each other, seemingly partially out of curiosity, and exasperation at Lynn's rejection of the nickname.

It was then that the jock's phone rang, prompting her to take it out of her pocket and see Lisa's message.

"Oh right, I forgot about this thing," Lynn remarked as she opened her phone. "Now that I think about it, why did my phone go with me to the afterlife?"

"You had it with you when you died, perhaps?"

The quartet turned around to see none other than Great Grandma Harriet coming out of the train, along with a couple passengers.

"When you die, everything that was on your person goes to purgatory with you. It's only after you're judged for either heaven or hell that all your belongings are left behind."

"But I don't remember taking my phone with me when I got caught up in the apocalypse," Lynn scratched the back of her head. "If anything, I'd expect Lori to have this sort of thing about her, not me."

"Whatever, just be happy you have something with you."

Great Grandma Harriet looked around.

"Anyway, have you seen Lucy? Visitor's hours are over and I need to take her back to the living world."

Lynn hummed. "She said she was going to meet someone..."

* * *

Lucy walked through the flower-filled fields of Elysium, looking around the bast, seemingly empty flower field for someone.

 _Okay, Great Grandma Harriet told me that I could find Silas around here in Elysium Fields. I don't know why she called them that, though, they seem like an ordinary flower field to me._

Just then, Lucy overheard somebody shout in joy, laughing as they fell down something, again going by the sound of it.

So Lucy ran up to the source of the laughter, and reached the person she was looking for: Silas, who was sporting a smile for once.

"Silas!"

The boy stood up, and smiled upon seeing the girl.

"Lucy!"

Both goths exchanged a hug

"Oh, sorry, sorry! I-I was just so happy to see you again, I forgot you-"

"There's nothing you have to apologize for, Lucy," Silas answered with a smile. "I'm happy to see you too."

Lucy blinked twice and raised an eyebrow. "Silas... are you actually being... happy?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?" the boy saved his hands in his pockets. "I'm no longer stuck as a slave to your counterpart, I don't feel pain and I'm back to normal after being turned into mince meat, I don't have to go to other dimensions killing people against my will-"

"Wait, what was the last one?"

"Doesn't matter: the point is, I'm free after being someone's puppet for so long," Silas grabbed Lucy's hand with his own hands. "And I got you to thank for that."

Lucy blushed and nervously smiled a little, lowering her head as Silas quickly noticed. "Hey, you're blushing and smiling too!"

"That's kind of a given when you've seen the things I have," Lucy sighed. "Anyway, what are you doing in the Elysium Fields? Great Grandma Harriet told me all the dead go to purgatory since heaven and hell are closed, so I thought you would stay there."

"I _was_ there for a moment, but since I had the luxury of being a member of your caste, who have a relationship with death itself, the train rider gave me the option to talk with one of the judges to go somewhere else while I wait for heaven and hell to be unlocked," Silas folded his arms. "So your great grandmother guided me to the judges, and Rhadamantys gave me permission to stay here, once he heard about how I died."

Lucy blinked twice as she tried to process everything that Silas just told her: she already had a feeling her caste had some relation with death, but judges of the dead? The caste being able to talk with them to discuss staying somewhere else? Great Grandma Harriet doing double duty to lead to the aforementioned judges?

It wasn't quite a shock when Lucy fell silent for a moment. "Rhada... who?"

Just then, Lucy's phone rang.

"Looks like they're calling you," Silas bid farewell. "Well, when you have some more free time, come back here and I'll show you the judge himself."

Before Lucy could say anything, Silas walked away into the flower fields, leaving Lucy alone to answer the phone. And once she did, she was quite surprised by who had sent her a message.

"Lisa? She almost never calls me. What could she want?"

* * *

At a little party in the public park, a bunch of kids sat down and watched as Maggie and Luan began their comedy act. Luan was wearing a black tuxedo, while Maggie looked the same as ever.

"Good evening, everybody!" Luan cheerfully greeted. "I'm Luan, and this is my friend, Maggie! And we're here to provide you some mild laughs before you go back to the real entertainment!"

The kids cheered up, flailing their arms up and down.

"Huh, I wasn't expecting that reaction," Luan rubbed her hands together. "Alright, Maggie, what should we do first?"

Maggie reached for her back, took out a toolkit, and took out a red and green balloon from it, earning a confused look from Luan. She then blew it until it was filled with air, revealing it was a balloon watermelon.

"A watermelon balloon?" Luan asked.

Maggie put the balloon on the ground, then took out a hammer out of the toolkit.

"Watermelon balloon smashing?" Luan inquired as Maggie handed her the hammer, with a nod of agreement. "I don't know, Maggie. Shouldn't we try something with a bit more... effort, for the children?"

"Yeah! Think of the children...'s entertainment!" yelled a woman nearby.

Maggie threw a look at Luan, then pointed at the balloon before she folded her arms.

"You won't do anything else until I hit the balloon?" Luan asked, earning a nod that prompted her to prepare to smash the balloon. "Alright, I don't get it but I'll humor you. I mean, it's so obviously going to burst."

Luan raised her arms and slammed the hammer down on the balloon... which contorted until it bounced the hammer back to Luan, hitting her in the face. Maggie promptly did the "ta-da!" gesture as the children laughed and clapped in approval.

Once Luan's face contorted back to normal, she took a closer look at the balloon with a curious look. "What is this thing made out of?"

Maggie gestured Luan to give her the balloon, she did, and the goth took a big bite out of it... not causing it to explode, but leave a wide bite mark where she took the bite. Luan hastily grabbed the watermelon back, looked at the piece bitten before showing it to the children, who went "whoa" with awe.

"You just took a bite out of a balloon!" Luan exclaimed.

Maggie shook her head in denial, and to prove her point, looked at some balloons in the sky. She then spat some seeds at them, bursting each of them, wowing the audience.

"No way..." Luan looked back at the watermelon. "But I could've sworn this was a balloon."

Maggie gestured Luan to take a bite out of the watermelon, which the comedian did with glee. The balloon burst right on her face, prompting Maggie to do the "Ta-da!" gesture once more, once again to the approval of the audience...

Except for one particular guy among them, this being Benny, who continued watching the show with a concerned look on his face...

A little bit after the show was over, Benny walked up to the tent where Maggie and Luan were resting, stopping just at the right time to hear them talking to each other:

 _You know, Luan, I couldn't help but notice most of our jokes were done at your expense._

 _Hey, you know what they say: the basis of all comedy is misery. And who better to receive the misery than someone who seems happy all the time? It's a funny contradiction!_

 _Maybe for the people who don't know you, but as someone who's known you since childhood, I'm not exactly happy with you having to take the brunt of the pain. I mean, not once did any of the pain fall on me!_

 _We both know you've been through too much already, Maggie-_

 _So have you!_

Benny promptly knocked the door, and the voices went silent as Luan walked up and opened the tent, flinching once she saw the guy.

"Benny!" she chirped, playing with her ponytail as she tried to keep eye contact with him. "W-What are you doing here?"

"Yeah, um, I was among the audience for your show. I thought it was pretty funny, but uh, the fact you were the one to take the brunt of the pain kinda angered me," the boy answered. "So please, try not to be the only one to suffer every now and then, maybe?"

Luan blushed and stuttered. "S-Sure, Benny, I'll try keep that in mind."

"Good to know," Benny smiled. "Also-"

However, Benny flinched when he felt the atmosphere suddenly growing heavy, the source becoming clear once he saw Maggie: she had a dark aura emanating from her, and a cold, sharp glare directed at the boy.

"Once second thought, I gotta go. See ya later."

The boy left, and the comedian returned to her partner just in time for her spare suit to shake, with Maggie taking out the phone from its pocket. "Looks like they're calling you, Luan."

Luan grabbed the phone and checked her messages, wincing once she saw who sent it. "It's from Lisa. I'll head to the backyard and come back in a pinch."

Luan reached for her back and took out a small box with a handle, quickly catching Maggie's attention. "What's that thing?"

"Well, I figured that if my powers are related to puns and jokes, I figured I could empower or chant or do something to make something like a special jack-in-a-box," Luan handed the box to Maggie. "And I think now's the perfect chance to give it a test!"

"You did hear me, right?" Maggie put a hand on her hip. "I'm not happy with the idea of you taking the brunt of the comedy."

"But I'm the one Lisa's calling for, and the box is the quickest way for me to get there," Luan answered, only to be met with further resistance from Maggie. "Look, if you're not willing to use the jack-in-a-box, then how am I supposed to get back home?"

Maggie scratched her chin and hummed, trying to get an idea...

* * *

At the public park, Luna Loud, holding her flaming pearl sword, swung it repeatedly as Leni, leaning against a tree, watched nearby.

"Be sure not to put a lot of strength on each swing, Luna! You might tire your arms too fast!"

"Leni, I'm used to playing very long, very complex guitar solos during my concert gigs," Luna replied, pausing her swinging as she turned to look at the fashionista. "I don't think swinging a sword at full force is going to tire me out that much!"

"Luna, this sword isn't just, like, any ordinary sword," Leni spoke as she left the shadow of the tree and walked up to Luna's side. "It's a divine weapon that you used to own a long time ago; the feeling of fatigue from holding it again after spending so long without might kick in if you're not careful."

"Okay, so you know that, but do you know _why_ was I the one to get a flaming sword of all things?" Luna asked as she took a confused look at the weapon. "I mean, up until now, I've been fighting with an axe made of my... whatever-its-supposed-to-be energy, so I was kinda hoping my divine weapon would also be an axe."

Leni hummed and walked around Luna as she looked at the sky. "Well, that sword is just _one_ of the many divine weapons you used to own. Practically none of us had a single weapon in our lives; we always had several."

Leni stopped and turned to look at Luna with a little smile. "So, it's totes possible that one of your other weapons was an axe."

"Okay, and the reason I got this sword instead of an axe?"

"Convenience, perhaps. After all, what's easier to make: a sword, or an axe?"

Luna looked back at the sword.

"Yeah, perhaps that's it."

Leni nodded, and knitted a scabbard out of thin air, which she handed to the rockstar soon after.

"So, Lori told me that her method of teaching involves tough love," Luna blurted as she sheathed the sword, Leni's eyes flashing a hint of velvet as her smile turned into a scowl. "Something about how acting tough on us even though she loves us deep down-"

Leni's face contorted in disgust. "Don't worry about it, Luna: Lori's just trying to justify her own stubborn, messed up idea over what training means. She has no idea what she's talking about."

"Oh really?" Luna raised an eyebrow. "Then how would _you_ have trained us if Carol hadn't become our mentor?"

Leni's face turned back into a sweet look as she turned around and responded. "I would've given you encouragement and instructions while letting you train however you wanted!"

 _And it turns out Leni has no idea what she's talking about either, what a shock._

Luna's phone rang, and she took a quick look at it before rolling her eyes. "It's Lisa. She probably wants to show me something another failed experiment of hers that'll blow up on her face as soon as she activates it."

"It might be worth giving it a look, though," Leni remarked, scratching her chin. "You should, like, go see what she wants to show you."

Luna took a deep breath. "You know what? I think I will."

With that said, Luna left the park and walked back home, leaving behind Leni to frown once more and shake her head. "Tough love, my buttocks, Lori wouldn't know what's tough love even if she, like, read its definition!"

* * *

With the last Loud sister heading to see the spaceship, Lori chose to turn off the screen, putting Lulu and Proto-Lisa's attention back to her.

"And that's it: everybody's heading to the spaceship and-"

Proto-Lisa jumped from her throne and landed in front of Lori, sprouting a long, black, scaled tail that she used to move up to Lori's face. "I didn't tell you to cut it off."

"What, the projection?" Lori asked with a shrug. "I don't see why I needed to keep it up-"

"Who knows, perhaps your Royal Woods-bound sisters were going to think of a plan, or you could've cut back to any of the other stuff you showed us like your "boyfriend"'s own spadeship, but now that you turned off your screen, we'll never find out what it was," Proto-Lisa went back down and folded her arms. "You need to learn not to be affected by criticism!"

"I didn't end it because my ego was hurt!" Lori snapped at the progenitor.

Proto-Lisa, unfazed by the young woman's outburst, narrowed her eyes. "Sure, you didn't."

"Um, excuse me?"

The pair turned around and saw another Lisa lookalike entering the room, though unlike the Lulus or Proto-Lisa, this one had a more distinct appearance: her hair was straighter than the average Lisa, her glasses were square-shaped, and she wore a simple shirt-pants-labcoat combo, with white socks and green slippers.

She also had a name tag with the name "Lupe" written on it, and held a clipboard on her hands.

"Ah, Lupe. You came just at the right time, I was about to systematically breakdown Lori's entire existence," Proto-Lisa said as she walked towards the child, ignoring Lori's offended look. "Please tell me you bring good news."

"Well, um, the "project" is starting to react after remaining motionless for a month, confirming that Carol Pingrey is among the people heading to Lisapolis," Lupe answered as she read from the clipboard, Proto-Lisa looking closer at the list as she continued. "Besides that, we've also got confirmation that a spadeship separate from the one housed by your descendant is coming here, housing the Loud lovechildren under Progenitor Luna's command."

"Excellent work, Lupe, you're so dependable like always," Proto-Lisa remarked, patting Lupe's back. "Now, go get yourself presentable for the family reunion. And raise Lisapolis's defenses to maximum."

Lupe raised an eyebrow. "The ones for general threats, or the ones designed to counter Dad?"

"The ones designed to counter your father, of course."

Lupe nodded and left to do as requested, leaving Proto-Lisa to deal with th enraged Lori. "You invited the lovechildren to this planet? Why?!"

"I'm pretty sure the answer should be obvious: Lincoln is coming, and I'm pretty sure that regardless of who's coming with him, his children will like to have a few words with him," Proto-Lisa clasped her hands and sighed. "And when they fail to beat him, if any of them are dumb enough to attack him in the first place, well, I can always use more guinea pigs."

"You can't honestly think this is a good idea!" Lori clenched her fists and stomped the ground. "I mean, what if Sincoln comes out while the lovechildren are around!? He doesn't care about anybody other than himself!"

Proto-Lisa lowered her eyelids, and with a slight hint of hostility in her tone, spoke back.

"Just like my sisters, who were more interested in what they wanted, rather than what the maker wanted? Just like Cristina, who slaughtered Lincoln's other lovers in hopes of being the only one to get his love? Just like you on your worst days, using your siblings and even Lincoln himself in schemes to get what you want, all in order to delude yourself into thinking you have some kind of authority, and that you're not the plaything of a madwoman?"

Lori fell silent, looking absolutely horrified as Proto-Lisa wasted no time in continuing:

"It all ends the same way: Lincoln gets angry, with reason. He denies the things the perpetrators demanded from him, justifiably. The perpetrators learn nothing, and do the thing that got on Lincoln's bad side all over again, forever doomed to repeat the cycle over and over again, proving themselves to be even more ignorant than Lincoln himself."

Lori took a couple steps back, trying to process the information the progenitor was telling her as she felt her heart skip several beats.

"It's pointless to try claim a higher moral ground against a being who can send you back a dozen floors below with words alone. I expected you to learn that by now."

Proto-Lisa walked away from the throne, Lori following her once she became lucid enough to move on her own again. "W-Whatever, where's Lulu? She was here a moment ago, right?"

"She didn't feel like wasting her time watching footage of anything other than a music video," Proto-Lisa answered with a bored tone, almost as if this complaint had been heard before. "So I sent her off to do something productive."

"Something productive?" Lori raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

Proto-Lisa looked straight at Lori and adjusted her glasses, giving a threatening shine as Lori quickly put the pieces together...

* * *

At the Sweetwater Mansion's backyard, Lindsey swung her yo-yo with Chandler keeping a close eye on her. Once he managed to see the coast was clear, the pair exchanged looks and smiled in relief...

Then, a large shadow loomed over them, prompting the pair to turn around and look in shock, and in Chandler's case anger, at the person the shadow belonged to: Lulu, who spread a pair of avian wings as she flashed a malicious grin.

"Hello there, kid."


	49. And Beyond!

**And today we have another chapter of Chains of Reality! I like to think we're either at the end of the introduction for Act 2, or the in between chapters before the Proto-Lisa arc truly begins.**

 **Did I make that clear before? EH, nevermind.**

 **Luckily, Hope was able to help me edit this chapter so I didn't leave you guys hanging for too long. Don't take this to mean we're one a weekly schedule yet, though, please be patient for that.**

 **I still need to catch up with the manga! XD**

 **Anyway, let's answer some reviews:**

 **1) Nobody245: Thank you! Sorry for taking so long to give you a gift back: this chapter. XD.**

 *** She will. The question is, is that a good thing?**

 **2) Observsnt Guest:**

 *** It definitely was. Made me more instrospective and sad, but still good nonetheless.**

 *** The magenta character was one of Luna's friends in Friendzy.**

 *** Hmm, it might be too late to include her though, Mrs. Santiago already took her spot...**

 *** Fun fact: Planet Tokyo is the name of a song by Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi, and the inspiration for the place.**

 *** Good choice, now if only there was an alternstive that was more Alíen, then you'd be up to something. ;)**

 *** Yeah, Leni and Lori have had quite a few moral differences in the past and present.**

 *** Cristina's relationships are very complicated, And Lincoln's no exception.**

 *** That theme definitely fits for the scolding Lori got.**

 *** And it continues here!**

 *** On an un related note, kinda, I've hear the Swordland music from SAO. I think it may have just inspired me to make an epic scene this arc, so pay attention for when it pops up.**

 **3) ChernoMan:**

 *** As in, Neon Genesis Evangelion?**

 *** Interesting.**

 *** Try Fire, Death, and Comedy Relief.**

 *** She was given one, using the Loud Slayer.**

 *** Something... Everything is wrong.**

 *** Yes, everything except Dad jokes. Hopefully we don't encounter an evil version of her-wait... Uh oh.**

 *** True Lincoln?**

 *** Got it.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 49: Beyond the Final Frontier! A Bumpy Ride to Lisapolis!**

* * *

The Spadeship flew past the atmosphere, and began flying on a straight line, which was handled by the trusty function known as auto-pilot. Lisa, the parents, and Carol were in the cockpit, while Lola, Lincoln, Clyde, and Ronnie Anne were at the rear of the ship.

Lisa took a look at the screen and nodded once she saw it read "insert coordinates" in bold words. "Mother Unit, Father Unit, now that we've breached our planet's atmosphere, I require your assistance."

"Sure, Lisa, what do you need?"

"I need you to relay the coordinates of the planet or planetoid you want us to travel to," Lisa stated, lowering her head as she gave the bad news, "'otherwise, we're going to be flying through space indefinitely or until we hit an asteroid."

"Oh, right," Lynn Sr. reached for his back and took out the coordinates. "Here you go."

Lisa grabbed the piece of paper, wrote down the coordinates in it, and input them on the console, setting their destination to Planet Lisapolis.

"Planet Lisapolis? And here I thought I'd have to make a name for myself before I'd get a planet named after me," Lisa remarked with pride as she put her arms behind her head and crossed her legs. "Guess the extra terrestrials got ahead of themselves."

"It might be better if you keep your ego in check, Lisa," Carol remarked, earning a look from the scientist. "After all, this is a planet we've never seen before. We could end up seeing stuff that would make you regret the fact it's named after you."

"Yeah, I doubt it," Lisa waved her hand dismissively. "Even if there's some bad stuff in there, it can't be anything worse than what I'm used to seeing."

Carol sighed somberly. "If only you knew."

Lisa raised an eyebrow at the statement, but remembering she had other things to think about, she went back to looking at the window.

* * *

Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, Clyde, and Lola sat inside a large room with several windows showcasing the vast emptiness of outer space. Clyde and Lincoln were reading an Ace Savvy comic book, while Lola showed Ronnie Anne her crystal arm.

"And with a single thought," Lola's arm disintegrated, only to reform moments later. "I can make it appear and disappear at a moment's notice."

"That's really cool, Diva-O," Ronnie Anne scratched her chin. "But does it burn you out to keep that up? I mean, we all know Portal-O has problems with stamina, so-"

"It does take a little bit for me to keep the arm intact, but it's not enough to drive me unconscious from overexertion," Lola answered, moving her crystal arm around a few times. "In fact, I think the longer I keep it up, the easier it becomes for me to summon it at will."

"I'm so jealous," Ronnie Anne put her arms behind her head. "I wish I had the ability to summon an elemental arm of sorts. I mean, can you imagine an arm made of lighting?!"

"I can think of it," Lola winked. "But I feel the end result would be... _shocking_."

The pun was not lost on Ronnie Anne. "Hey, did you hang out with Joke-O recently? 'Cause you certainly pulled a Joke-O just now!"

And as the girls laughed out loud, Lincoln and Clyde shook their heads with little smiles and continued reading their book.

"Say, I heard Lisa built a training room right here on the rocket," Lola spoke as she stood up and walked to the door. "Would anybody care to join me?"

"Hey, maybe Clyde could," Lincoln suggested, getting Clyde's attention. "I mean, you still need to perfect your Savinoken technique, don't you buddy?"

Clyde adjusted his glasses and took a deep breath. "While I do still need to perfect that technique, my body is always without fail rendered exhausted every time I'm not kicked out of that form, and the time limit runs out. And considering that anything could happen without warning, I'd rather not be out of commission when that happens."

Lincoln felt Clyde was blatantly lying about his limitation, but this was rendered moot when Lola quickly added, "Meh, okay, I was only asking out of curiosity anyway. Time to beat up some robots!"

Lola left the room, and as Lincoln got off and walked to the window, Ronnie Anne sat next to Clyde. "You didn't pass out or look that exhausted when you fought me with that form, Nerd-O."

"I turned off the technique by my own will, so the time limit wasn't anywhere close to ending," Clyde replied, focusing solely on the comic. "If I try to use the technique sparring with Lola, I might go past the time limit, which means I could end up being too drained to fight when the time comes."

"Yeah, right, you're just worried because you're fighting one of Lame-O's sisters and you're worried you'll hurt her!" Ronnie Anne teased, patting Clyde's back. "Hey, Lincoln, back me up here!"

But Lincoln didn't respond, being solely focused on the window. He put a hand in it as he kept looking at the vast void that was space, as well as the planet Earth, which now seemed as big as his head with how far away it was.

"Hey, Lame-O."

The boy blinked twice and turned around to see Clyde and Ronnie Anne walking up to him, both sporting smiles. "Is something wrong?"

"No, don't worry, guys, I'm just..." Lincoln turned back to the window. "Taking a look at space."

"Yeah, we're just as surprised to be here," Clyde said as he and Ronnie Anne looked out the window. "I mean, just a month ago we were helping the girls' with their activities, nothing special. And now, we're heading to another planet to help rebuild a secret organization for Royal Woods safety."

Lincoln sighed. "Do you think anybody would've believed us if we said we were going to go to space someday?"

"I definitely would've called you nuts," Ronnie Anne chuckled. "Now, though... I guess I'm a bit concerned over what'll happen once we reach wherever we're going."

"At least we can rest assured that whatever happens, we don't have that much to worry about," Clyde replied, patting Lincoln's back. "I mean, now that Lincoln's actually willing to throw a punch, we definitely have an advantage."

"Don't rest easy just yet," Lincoln replied, gently pushing Clyde back. "Just because I have no problem with fighting the progenitors now doesn't mean I'm just going to fight right away. I'm leaving that as a last resort."

"Way to be a buzzkill, Lame-O," Ronnie Anne shook her head and turned back to the window. "Still, at least we have this pretty sight to-"

However, Ronnie Anne quickly noticed something strange outside: a winged Luna lookalike with pink hair and avian wings, flying through space without a helmet or really any protection from the cold emptiness of... well, space.

But what caught her attention the most was that she was carrying some kind of container, one where a familiar figure could be seen inside: Chandler, completely unconscious.

"L-Lincoln," Ronnie Anne stuttered, shaking the boy as she pointed at the creature. "A-are you seeing what I am seeing? Or am I hallucinating?"

Lincoln and Clyde looked at the avian lookalike, but while Clyde raised an eyebrow confused at who he was seeing, Lincoln's eyes widened as the creature looked at him, blew a raspberry, and promptly flew away with Chandler in tow.

"That was... b-but... that can't be..." Lincoln stuttered as he backed away and scratched his chin. "There's no way she could be her own person... right?"

Confused and concerned at his friend's reaction, Clyde walked to his side and asked, "Lincoln, you know who that girl was?"

"That's Lulu, a pop idol alter ego that Luna was forced into when she decided to work with some producers, only to ditch it and be herself" said Lincoln, while still staring out the window. "But like I said, it was just an alter ego she ditched once she cut ties with those producers. There's no way Luna would take the alter ego ever again!"

"Well, maybe this "Lulu" we're seeing is an alternate version of Rock-O from a dimension where she chose to remain like that?" Ronnie Anne suggested with a shrug. "I mean, alternate dimensions are all but confirmed at this point, so you can't deny the possibility."

"Another thing we can't deny is that Chandler is being taken who-knows-where and he needs our help," Clyde began walking towards the door. "I'll go ask Lisa where the space suits are."

"We're coming with you," Lincoln said, taking a couple steps forward. "Right, Ronnie Anne?"

However, the boys stopped once they noticed Ronnie Anne wasn't moving away from her spot. She stood in place as Lincoln and Clyde looked at her, prompting her to explain herself:

"Look, I agree that Chandler being taken to wherever Pop-O is taking him could spell bad things, but if I go with you two to try and save him, he's not going to let me hear the end of it!"

Clyde folded his arms with a disapproving look. "So you're not going to help him to protect your own ego?"

"I'm not going to help him in order to not bloat _his_!" Ronnie Anne snapped, flinching once she realized what she said. "Wow, that... that's not much better now that I say it out loud."

"Ronnie Anne, I know you and Chandler are on bad terms, but we've already deal with enough of our friends or neutral people going crazy or evil by the hands of the progenitors," Lincoln argued, earning a concerned look from Ronnie Anne. "If Chandler becomes evil, we may have to fight him and-"

Ronnie Anne frowned. "Kill him?"

Lincoln flinched and paused before he slowly lowered his head and gave a sorrowful nod. Despite this, it wasn't enough to convince Ronnie Anne, who wordlessly looked at the ground.

"Ronnie Anne-"

"Forget it Lincoln, she's not coming with us," Clyde stated, putting a hand on Lincoln's shoulder. "We need to go get our space suits and go after Lulu before she escapes with Chandler!"

Seeing his best friend was right, Lincoln looked at Ronnie Anne one more time before he put his index and middle finger on his forehead and used Omnipresence to take him and Clyde directly to Lisa and co.

Once gone, Ronnie Anne opened and looked at her palm, summoning a bit of electricity that surged through it. Gaining a bit of determination, Ronnie Anne closed her palm and left the room.

* * *

Back at the cockpit, Lisa, Carol, and the Loud parents focused on the straight, seemingly endless void of space in front of them, while the screen close to Lisa suddenly showed a 24 minute mark.

"This is how long it'll take us to arrive to our destination," Lisa explained before she kicked back and crossed her legs. "Until then, we can sit down, put our arms behind our heads, and calmly wait for the auto pilot to take us there."

"That's assuming we don't encounter any foreign, hostile extraterrestial lifeforms," Carol pointed out.

And then Lynn Sr. looked up. "And I'm afraid we already met one."

"Seriously?!" Lisa stood up and grabbed the controls again. "I mean, I'm always happy to find a potential test subject, but what the heck!?"

Lisa manually moved the rocket's camera, 'cause apparently it had one of those now, and zoomed in on the creature in question, who was of course Lulu, posing for the camera while still fying somehow.

"Oh, nevermind, it's just Luna cosplaying as her former pop idol alter ego," Lisa zoomed in on the container. "Although, this piques my interest, what's she doing carrying that container?"

"There's a kid inside it!" Rita exclaimed.

"Oh, right, there is," Lisa remarked with minimal surprise. "Well, that just dumbfounds me even more: what does Luna want to do with a container containing a kid?"

"Lisa, you may find this hard to believe, but that's not Luna," Carol answered, narrowing her eyes at Lulu's smug grin. "That's Lulu, an alternate version of Luna that's working for your counterpart!"

Lisa's eyes widened, and she scratched her chin. "You know, I turned off my brain just in case we encountered some weird stuff, and while I did expect Luna and my counterpart to have something to do with it, I didn't think they would be working together. Whatever the case, something should be done about this-"

Just then, Lincoln and Clyde arrived at the cockpit, the latter releasing the former before he took a step forward and exclaimed, "Lisa!"

The parents and Carol flinched while Lisa calmly rolled her chair to face the boys. "Oh right, we were just thinking about requesting you assistance. Apparently-"

"A living version of Lulu's pop idol alter ego is nearby, holding a container with Chandler inside!" Lincoln said, taking a couple steps forward. "Could you tell us where the space suits are?"

Lisa raised an incredulous eyebrow. "And for what reason do you want the space suits, if I may ask?"

"We need to get out there and get Chandler back from that winged Luna copycat's arms!" Clyde explained sternly. "Or claws, talons, whatever she's using to grab him!"

"I'm pretty sure those are talons," Lisa replied, adjusting her glasses. "And besides, you misunderstand the question: how do you think the space suits are going to help you get this Chandler back from Lulu's clutches, if the space suits are just that: suits that work in space? They have no weapons attached to them, not jetpacks, really, it might be better if you created your own space suits to go out and do it."

Carol glanced at Lisa and the boys, before she lowered her eyelids and confessed, "That's something you can actually do, by the way."

"Wait, what?!" Lisa exclaimed.

Lincoln and Clyde exchanged looks, and after exchanging a nod, Clyde clenched his fist and closed his eyes... this was when Carol spoke again, "The only one who can will a space exoskeleton into existence is Lisa."

"Thanks for the warning," Clyde put a hand on his hip and shrugged. "So, how do I get this "Space exoskeleton" you're talking about?"

Carol glanced at Lisa, who tilted her head before she realized Carol was silently asking her to do that herself. Auto pilot was on, so there was no danger as the toddler got off her chair and walked up to the guy.

She looked at her hand, then grabbed Clyde's arm as she thought about her wanting to give him a space armor, or space exoskeleton as Carol called it, and waited until a green light formed around Clyde's arm, soon enveloping the rest of his body.

The light contorted into an armor shape, then promptly vanished to reveal Clyde now wore a form-fitting green armor, visor and arm cannon included. Not only that, but the boy could use the same abilities he could use before without the armor inhibitting them whatsoever.

"Alright, now Lincoln," Carol spoke, getting everyone's attention. "Spread your arms, close your eyes, and imagine you want to summon a bubble around yourself."

Lincoln raised an eyebrow, but promptly obliged, and barely a few seconds later, an orange bubble popped into existence around Lincoln, the boy looking surprised at this fact before he quickly shook it off, and he and Clyde ran off to go outside and help Chandler.

This was followed by the parents standing up, getting Lisa's attention. "Where are you going?"

"We're going to go with Lincoln and Clyde," Rita answered as she stood up and dusted herself. "You brought the suits we showed you, right?"

"Yeah, they're down on the back, where the space suits are," Lisa answered as she sat back on her chair. "They stick out like a sore thumb with their colors compared to the white suits, so it should be easy to find them."

"Got it," Lynn Sr. nodded. "Thanks Lisa."

The parents ran to the lower half of the rocket, nearly tripping over Ronnie Anne on their way there.

Once the parents left the room, Ronnie Anne walked forward to the cockpit, and lightly frowned as she saw only Lisa and Carol remained. "Where did Lincoln and Clyde go?"

"Lisa gave Clyde a space exoskeleton to go along with Lincoln to deal with Lulu," Carol explained, rolling her chair to face Ronnie Anne as she added, "The Loud parents went to get their own armors to go help them."

"I see..." Ronnie Anne lowered her head a little. "So even Lincoln's parents are serious about saving Chandler, huh?"

"I think they're more concerned with helping Lincoln and Clyde, but if they can rescue Chandler, that's a nice bonus, don't you think?" Carol rolled her chair again and looked at the screen. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind having an extra hand, if you want to go help them."

Ronnie Anne saved her arms on her pockets and groaned. "Where did you get that idea? I just wanted to see what Lame-O and Nerd-O were doing! I don't-"

Ronnie Anne paused and sighed. "I don't care about what happens to Chandler..."

Lisa glanced at Carol, then back at Ronnie Anne, and adjusted her glasses as she walked up to the girl and put a hand on her shoulder.

"You know, Ronnie Anne, you may have made it clear that you don't want to help Chandler for one reason or another. But if you had any second thoughts, then there's still something you can do. Down at the deeper levels, there's a docking bay containing at least one miniature ship. It should be easy enough for you to control it once you set foot in it."

Ronnie Anne's eyes widened at the suggestion, and she nodded with a determined look before she ran back to look for it.

* * *

A door outside the spadescraft opened, and both Lincoln and Clyde promptly came out, closing the door before they moved towards Lulu, who was leisurely flying alongside the rocket.

"About time you two appeared before me," Lulu spoke once she noticed Clyde and Lincoln approaching her. "I was starting to wonder when was Neo-Lisa going to send somebody after me!"

"So wait a minute, you were trying to get Lisa's attention?!" Lincoln exclaimed, raising an eyebrow. Was the Luna faker really that desperate?

"Of course I did! I mean, not being watched 24/7 is something completely alien to me!" Lulu responded before striking a pose, all while keeping a tight grip on the container. "I'll drop dead if people aren't looking at me all the time!"

"So you're basically Luna with Lola's attitude," Lincoln sighed and rubbed his forehead. "That's a fusion I hope I never get to see."

"Lola? I've never met this Lola you're talking about," Lulu rested her chin on her palm and raised an eyebrow. "I would be lying if I said I've never seen any of your sisters before, though. After all, I owe my existence to one of them."

Lulu flashed a malicious smirk as she smugly revealed, "And it isn't Luna-"

Suddenly, a crystal struck Lulu in the face, and the boys turned around to see the it came from Rita, who was wearing her armor alongside Lynn Sr. They flew towards the boys and stood at their sides as Lulu grabbed the crystal, opened her mouth, and without uttering a single sound, the crystal shivered before it shattered into pieces, which were then thrown right back at everyone.

Most of them dodged them, except for Lincoln, whose bubble was struck for a moment before the crystal was surrounded by an orange aura and disintegrated.

"Well, at least I don't have to worry about this bubble being burst!" Lincoln spoke with a nervous chuckle.

"Hmm, four versus one, huh? Talk about unfair," Lulu shook her head. "Not only is such a small group not enough to satisfy my ego..."

Lulu spread her wings wide, before they split into four wings.

"But it's not even big enough to pose a threat to me!"

* * *

Back with Ronnie Anne, the girl ran around the docking bay, looking around for the available spacecraft that Lisa had mentioned. For the most part, all of the spacecrafts were closed, so even if she did find an available one, just how was she supposed to open it?

"Ronnie Anne!"

The tomboy stopped and turned around to see Lisa running after her, the toddler dropping to her knees and heavily catching her breath once she reached her.

"Dang it, Ronnie Anne!" Lisa exclaimed as she weakly stood up. "Don't just run off without waiting for me first!"

"Why didn't you use your jet shoes or something to go after me, then?" Ronnie Anne pointed out, and Lisa's shocked look spoke for itself. "Anyway, where's the ship you told me about?"

Lisa wobbled around before Ronnie Anne grabbed her arm and helped her walk until they reached a ship with a green keyboard. Lisa input a code on the keyboard, and the ship opened its door, allowing Ronnie Anne to go inside.

"Okay, now, as soon as I release the ship into space, all you need to worry about is controlling it," Lisa pointed at the controls. "The double joystick-like thing controls movement, and the buttons lets you shoot from its lower guns, understood?"

Yeah, I got it," Ronnie Anne grabbed the controls. "This is a lot like those old-school spaceship games. Were they an inspiration?"

"They were part of the design, believe it or not," Lisa answered as she closed the door and input a code on a panel nearby. "Anyway, good luck out there, Ronnie Anne. Be sure not to blow yourself up."

With one more push of a button, Ronnie Anne's ship was released into the vast void of space, the girl immediately turning it on with the push of a green button. She then moved the joysticks as told by Lisa, and moved closer to the fight between the Louds and Clyde and Lulu.

"Hang on, guys, I'm coming!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed, moving the ship forward before shooting its guns.

The guns struck Lulu repeatedly, but the pop idol managed to hold her own until Clyde flew towards her and shot an energy blast right on her being, sending her flying off until she crashed on the ship, releasing the container in response.

Clyde and Lincoln promptly flew to the ship, and were surprised to see Ronnie Anne piloting it inside.

"Ronnie Anne?" Lincoln asked, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you didn't want to save Chandler, what are you doing?"

Ronnie Anne gestured the boys to let them know she couldn't hear them, and Clyde promptly added, "She can't hear us, Lincoln. We'll need to wait until we're back inside the spadeship before we ta-"

Lulu rudely interjected with a kick at Clyde's face, then grabbed him and held him close to her face before she yelled in a frequency that only he could listen. And whatever Clyde listened, it was bad enough to render him unconscious, but not before causing a couple cracks on his visor.

Lulu promptly grabbed the unconscious boy by his neck and threw him back at the spadeship, right in the spot where she had crashed in the first place. And as the boy began drifting around, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne shouted in shocked unison:

"Clyde!"

* * *

 _..._

 _..._

 _..._

 _Subject status: unconscious._

 _Damage status: recuperable._

 _Time necessary to recover consciousness: a couple minutes._

 _Requirements to achieve greater form: achieved._

 _..._

 _..._

 _..._

 _Initiating, Lincoln Buster Mode._

* * *

From within Clyde's visor, the boy's eyes glew orange as he lifted his head and looked at the fight between Lulu and his friends: Ronnie Anne shot her ship's guns at her in quick succession, and Lincoln, being encased in a bubble, comforted with constantly bouncing on her face and send her flying straight into the path of Ronnie Anne's blasts.

This only continued until Lulu flew to the ship, grabbed the guns, and promptly ripped them off, cracking them into pieces as Ronnie Anne took a moment to realize her guns no longer worked. And once she did realize what was happening, Lulu was in front of her ship's visor, ready to let out another yell.

This was interrupted, however, when she was struck by a rainbow blast coming from nowhere. It didn't come from Lincoln, since the boy shook his head when Ronnie Anne moved her ship to face him.

The one who shot the blast was Clyde, who promptly flew towards Lulu and began unleashing a barrage of rainbow blasts at the winged creature, each blast successfully hitting her until she blew them away with her wings.

Lulu flew towards Clyde and swung her wings as if they were weapons, a grave mistake as Clyde grabbed the edge of the wings and used his free arm cannon to blow a hole in two of them, before he summoned a lighting blade that he used to cut Lulu repeatedly, until he charged his cannon again and shot a rainbow beam at Lulu, successfully

By the end of the barrage, Lulu had both notable bruises all over her body, and notable parts of her dress had been torn or burnt off. Nothing too risque thought.

And as she caught her breath, holding her shoulder with her arm, Clyde's eyes glew as he scanned the girl...

 _Target analyzed... target identified as Luna class... no relation to Lincoln identified... deactivating Lincoln Buster Mode._

Clyde's visor lost its orange glow as he lowered his head and began drifting around, until he was caught by Lincoln and Ronnie Anne, the former putting him inside his bubble as the latter stood in front of them, ready to fight back against Lulu despite lacking any guns to attack with.

Lulu spread her remaining wings and flew away at top speed, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne exchanging confused looks before they shrugged it off and took Clyde back into the spadeship.

* * *

Clyde slowly opened his eyes, and saw that not only was he back at the room he, Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, and Lola were at before, but he no longer had his space exoskeleton equipped.

"Ugh, what happened?" he asked as he stood up and grabbed his head. "I remember Ronnie Anne coming in on a ship, but everything after that... is blank."

Then, he looked around and saw Chandler resting on a nearby bed, prompting Lincoln to explain, "Mom and Dad managed to bring the container Chandler was in back inside, took him out of it, and put him here to take a rest."

"Meanwhile, we stayed behind to fight and take you back once you fell unconscious," Ronnie Anne took a deep breath and shook her head. "I couldn't really do much with my ship, though; that freaking Pop-O took off the guns before I knew it. You were more effective than I was."

"And speaking of that, you shot rainbow blasts and summoned an energy sword after you returned from being knocked unconscious," Lincoln pointed out, putting a hand on Clyde's shoulder. "Do you remember any of that?"

Clyde lowered his head, and silently shook his head. But before Lincoln or Ronnie Anne could ask him why he remembered nothing, Chandler woke up and rubbed his eyes, quickly clearing his vision and giving him a good look at the trio's surprised looks.

"You saved me?" Chandler asked, scanning the area. "Why did you do that?"

"Good, he knows we saved him," Ronnie Anne saved her hands on her pockets and rolled her eyes. "That saves us the trouble of explaining how he's here."

"You're our friend, Chandler," Clyde answered with a shrug, with Lincoln nodding in agreement. "And besides, who knows what Lulu would've done with you wherever she was taking you-"

"Yeah, I get that," Chandler turned to Ronnie Anne. "What I mean is why did Ronnie Anne come with you?"

Ronnie Anne flinched. "How did you know I was there with them?!"

Chandler raised an eyebrow. "So you _were_ with them? I was just guessing that part."

Ronnie Anne flinched again and blushed as she looked away and uttered, "Lincoln and Clyde were adamant on saving you, and after some convincing from Lisa, I decided to join them on a ship."

Chandler tilted his head. "Since when do you call people by their name and not their nicknames?"

"See?! This is why I didn't want to save him!" Ronnie Anne snapped at Lincoln as Chandler stood up and dusted himself. "He's getting on my case and that's boiling my nerves!"

"Well, whatever the case, thanks a lot for helping me," Chandler folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. "I'm guessing it's too late to ask for the ship to go back and take me back home?"

"We have to head over to the coordinates Lisa inserted into the ship first, sorry," Lincoln replied, scratching the back of his head. "But as soon as we're done with whatever business we have there, we'll take you back home, we promise."

"I'll keep that in mind," Chandler responded as he walked to the door. "I'm gonna go train for a bit. This place has a training room, right?"

"It does, but are you sure you should be doing that?" Clyde asked. "You just came out from being knocked unconscious inside a container."

"I need to keep myself in shape or else my abilities are going to lose their luster," Chandler responded as he stretched a bit. "And besides, after being caught off-guard by that winged pop idol, I want to make sure that doesn't happen again. Now, where's the training room?"

"A couple rooms down from here, there's a room with a different design than the others," Ronnie Anne explained, avoiding eye contact with the boy. "That and Diva-O is still there, I think, so she should be making some noise inside."

Chandler smiled. "Now you're talking like the Ronnie Anne I know."

Ronnie Anne blushed and pointed at Chandler. "Shut up and go train already, you jerk!"

"Yup, _definitely_ talking like the Ronnie Anne I know," Chandler said with sincerity as he left the room.

And as soon as the door closed, Ronnie Anne shot an angry glare at Lincoln and Clyde, prompting them to look away.

* * *

Lola, standing in the middle of the training room littered with robot remains, dusted her hands and herself before Chandler entered the room, catching her attention.

"Hey, aren't you Lindsey's butler boy?" Lola asked, earning a nod from Chandler. "Last time I saw you, Luan and I were going to Lindsey's party. What are you doing here?"

"Long story short, I was kidnapped by a pink-haired version of your sister, and your brother and his friends saved me," Chandler answered calmly, before electricity surged through his body. "Now, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind if I joined your training session."

"Getting a bit ahead of yourself, don't you think?" Lola folded her arms. "You just came back from being kidnapped, shouldn't you be resting?"

"I will rest once this training is over, but until then, I want to keep my skills sharp," Chandler smiled with a tone of smugness. "Besides, don't tell me you're scared of fighting me after the last time we did it."

"Ohoho, them fightin' fighting words," Lola put her hands on her hips. "Fair warning: I'm not the same little girl you gave a beating to last time."

Chandler spread an arm and summoned a lighting blade. "How about you show me, rather than tell me?"

"Give me a second," Lola spread her crystal arm, and created a crystal blade from it, replacing the hand. "Okay, now I can show you!"

Chandler and Lola leaped towards each other and crossed blades, exchanging a smile before their clash continued...

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview...**

"Hi everybody, Chandler and Lola here."

TARGET YET TO BUFFER PREVIEW. PLEASE WAIT.

"Why must our fight be cut short? I was totally gonna win!"

BUFFERING...

"Yeah, I would fry you before you got anywhere."

BUFFERING...

"That sounds rather shocking, if I do say so myself."

STILL BUFFERING...

"Now you're turning this into a battle of wits? At least say the next chapters name."

STILL BUFFERING...

"Fine. Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

DEFINITELY STILL BUFFERING...

 **"A Whole New World! Welcome to Lisapolis!"**

MOST CERTAINLY STILL BUFFERING...

"Don't miss it!"

BUFFERING FAILED. PREVIEW OF NEXT CHSPTER FAILED TO LOAD.


	50. Rough Landing

**And here we are at episode 50! Just 50 more episodes and Lincoln and co will hopefully have proven themselves to be worthy deities for the new reality!**

 **That's what this story's about, right? It's not just about cool fights and anime-isms, right?**

 **Thanks once more to A Hopefule Observer for beta editing this chapter. He's truly the hope that will vanish Lord Hiatus's influence from this story! Seriously, though, thank you man. :)**

 **Also, heads up: next few chapters might be a bit smaller in length. Not by a wide Martín, but still, It's worth pointing it out.**

 **Anyway, let's answer some reviews:**

 **1) Nobody245:**

 *** *Space Pod Voice* SPAAAAAAACE!**

 *** That's not the only thing she'll need to get over.**

 *** I think Lisa just brought them along because they're the main character.**

 **2) Observant Guest:**

 *** One idea at a time.**

 *** I loved the show when I was a kid, I remember tuning in repeatedly before I suddenly forgot about it. The music's still good too. And yeah, to my knowledge, that did happen.**

 *** Fun fact: I had the idea to have either Ami and Yumi or characters based on them appear on this arc, but I decided against it to stay focused on Lisapolis.**

 *** Just remember, it has nothing to do with gaming snacks XD**

 *** Space got it.**

 *** And if you remember a few chapters ago, in the original reality...**

 *** He'll play a part with Ronnie Anne's development, as he's always done.**

 *** The preview has scenes this time around, don't worry.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 50: A Whole New World! Welcome to Lisapolis!**

* * *

The first spaceship to land on the planet was the spadeship of the lovechildren, landing on a landing spot far away from the main tower, and in fact, it had landed on the dark side of the planet, with almost nothing being illuminated.

A fact that only aggravated the lovechildren as they walked outside, Lemy flying out first to see. "Everybody, stand behind me."

Lemy took off his blindfold, and opened his eyes, revealing green glowing eyes and pupils that allowed the guy to see the place. He then powered up enough to summon his aura, a green aura, further illuminating the darkened surroundings. "Now, follow me."

"Great, as if we didn't have enough pain in our butts, now we have to follow him lest we get lost in this giant pinball machine," Lupa growled as she and the other children followed the guy. "Could this day get any better?"

"I highly apologize for not letting you land anywhere closer to my tower."

The lovechildren stopped and looked up to see a giant monitor light up, showing Proto-Lisa on the screen. "But the landing spot closest to my tower is for some very special guests, and I can't risk letting them know you're here too."

"Progenitor Lisa!" Lacy exclaimed.

"The one and only," Proto-Lisa curtsied. "I hope you enjoy your stay on Lisapolis once you reach the tower. Mostly because I don't think you'll have another chance ever again."

Lizy frowned. "What do you mean?"

Proto-Lisa took a deep breath and took off her glasses... taking off her eyes in the process. "I'm not going to lie to you, the Omni-Father is coming to Lisapolis."

"Dad?!" the lovechildren exclaimed in unison.

"Yes, him," Proto-Lisa cleaned her eye-glasses and put them back on. "And you know that, by "virtue" of being a progenitor, we will eventually fight, and no matter who comes out, the planet will be destroyed."

Just as the lovechildren gasped and took a step back, the monitor turned off, and the ground transformed into moving platforms, which automatically took the lovechildren inside as they thought about what this meant.

"Dad and Progenitor Lisa fighting would be enough to destroy the planet?!" Leia asked, scratching the back of her head. "I mean, I can easily believe that Dad could have enough strength to damage the planet or crack it, but actually destroy it..."

"Don't act like that's a grand revelation," Lizy said, lowering her head sadly. "Dad's basically a god of destruction in all but name. He destroyed the original reality before; destroying a planet would barely require any effort on his part."

"If that's the case, though, we better make sure we get out of here before they fight," Lacy said, pounding her fist. "Otherwise, we'll turn into space dust along with the planet."

"Hmm, turn into space dust, or continue to try an escape an invincible, sadistic lunatic," Lupa weighed both options, then folded her arms. "Believe it or not, I find the first option far more appealing."

The lovechildren eventually became silent as they reached the "city square" of the planet, where the floor turned back to normal as they turned around and saw Lupe standing nearby, having just pulled a lever.

"Oh hey, you're a lovechild between Lincoln and Lisa, right?" Lacy inquired, scratching her chin as she added, "I think your name's Lulu, right?"

"No, that's the name of Mother Luna's pop idol persona... and also her personal shame," Lemy folded his arms and shook his head. "It's a cursed, forbidden name that should never be said again."

Lupe shook her head in return. "I'm afraid you're talking about the mass-produced artificial creatures,"

Lizy scratched her head. "So wait, there are two Loud-related people named Lulu?"

"It's complicated," Lupa waved her hand with a dismissive motion. "My name's actually Lupe. It's nice to meet you."

Lupa rolled her eyes and folded her arms. "Wish we could say the same."

Lupe frowned a little at the remark, but quickly shook it off and clasped her hands. "Anyway, there's someone who wants to see you, so I'll go work on some other stuff while you see her. Please try not to break anything."

The scientific lovechild left afterwards, leaving an annoyed Lupa to say, "don't break anything? How old does she think we are, five?"

"To be fair, I think that's supposed to be the age of the twins," Lacy remarked, throwing a look at Lizy and Leia as they looked at a creature inside a test tube. "If there's somebody prone to break things, it's them."

"Look at this thing, Lizy!" Leia chirped as she and Lizy looked at the creature with pure awe. "It looks like... a thing!"

"I think the proper term is " chimera", sis," Lizy responded, her eyes glued to the creature.

"And I think you two should back away a little," Lemy flew to the twins, grabbed them by the neck of their suits and dragged them back to the group. "You heard Lupe: she asked us not to break anything, and considering our powers, yours in particular, we need to stay put."

"Aw, how cute, Lemy's acting like a proper sibling."

The boy lowered his eyelids as he and his sisters turned around to see the person who said that was none other than Liberty, who clasped her hands as she added, "I was starting to wonder how much longer you were going to act like a soulless object."

"Liberty! You're here too?!" Leia exclaimed, raising an eyebrow and tilting her head. "But wait, was coming here the reason you couldn't take us yourself?"

"Well, partially," Liberty folded her arms and rolled her eyes in disgust. "Truth is, I had to deliver a very "special" guest here by request of Progenitor Lisa."

Liberty turned to the spadeship and whistled, summoning the special guest. Upon seeing them, the lovechildren's eyes widened, while Liberty rolled her eyes and spoke, "Okay everybody, meet today's special guest... Link."

The lovechildren watched as a lovechild that looked like the splitting image of Lincoln, with slightly messier hair and the average chain breaker uniform, stepped into view...

* * *

Lupe pushed a couple buttons before she was visited by Lori, immediately startling her. "Aunt Lori, w-what are you doing here?!"

"I'm here to keep an eye out on when Lincoln and his group are getting close," Lori answered as she walked towards one of the computers and pushed some buttons. "Since you're literally busy dealing with the "project" and-"

"Lupe, if you're going to act like the expert talking to someone in the know, then cut the chase," Lori sternly responded, focused solely on the screen. "The project hasn't been here for a while, it's been here for years, centuries even. And if you're asking literally me if I feel something, then what feeling are you talking about?"

"Okay, alright, I got it, geez! Thanks for reminding me why I find you terrifying," Lupe folded her arms and took a deep breath. "What I mean is, don't you feel sorry for the project?"

Lori's eyes widened a bit as Lupe continued, "I mean, "Mother" Lisa has been doing quite a lot of things to the project, and its... sounds aren't really pleasant-"

"She's fixing and stabilizing the project, Lupe, nobody literally said it would be painless," Lori replied, quickly shaking off the shock from the question. "And besides, I have more than enough stuff to think about right now, so we're dropping this conversation right now. End of discussion."

Lupe leaned forward. "But-"

Lori snapped an electrifying look at the lovechild. "End. Of. Discussion. Lupe."

Not wanting to anger the oldest sister, Lupe went back to her monitor, just in time for Lori's monitor to glow and cut to reveal the group's spadeship coming to Lisapolis, followed by the alarms blaring around.

"Looks like they got here earlier than expected: Lupe, activate the planetary guardian defense system, and set all its stats to maximum!" Lori barked at the lovechild as she began typing away at her keyboard. "Even if that thing can't kill any of them, it'll at least destroy their spadeship."

"Won't they attack us if we attack them first?!" Lupe asked, hesitant to go through with the order. "Especially if it destroys their spaceship?"

"If they're coming here for a reason, it's to literally destroy Proto-Lisa, and we need them to be as on-guard as possible," Lori answered, focused solely on her typing. "Whether the planet gets destroyed as well doesn't matter: they come here, and only either they or Proto-Lisa's group will come out alive!"

"I know that, but still," Lupe pushed a couple buttons and pulled a lever. "What kind of welcoming is sending a giant security system at a small group? Isn't it overkill?"

"For anybody else, it would be," Lori looked back at the monitor and looked sternly at the spadeship. "For Lincoln and his group, it'll be a mere nuisance."

Hearing that, Lupe took a deep breath and reluctantly began typing the commands to summon the robot. This happened just as Lori's monitor changed once again, this time showing Proto-Lisa on the screen.

"The alarms are blaring, Lori."

"Of course they are, Lincoln and his group are coming!" Lori stated as she turned off the alarms with the push of a button.

"And you couldn't have picked a less noisy alarm sound?" Proto-Lisa rubbed her forehead and scowled. "I could hear that noise all the way to the throne room."

"That was the-!"

"And another thing, why are you panicking again? Because Lincoln is coming?" Proto-Lisa sighed. "They received the coordinates to my planet and the blueprints to build a spaceship to head right to it. It would've been weirder if they didn't come."

Lori grumbled under her breath, until she remembered something. "Did Lulu manage to bring Chandler here?"

"Look, I know you're excited to torture him for the minor offense he did to you years ago, but at least have more tact when changing the subject," Proto-Lisa shook her head soon after. "But no, she came here empty-handed."

Lori raised an eyebrow. "Then, where is he right now?"

* * *

Chandler constantly threw a coin up and down while leaning against a wall, Lola looking at him nearby. "So, what kind of trick can you do with that coin?"

Chandler grabbed the coin and threw a confused look at the diva. "What makes you think I can do a trick with this thing?"

"I can't really think of any other reason why you would bring a coin to space," Lola responded with a shrug. Chandler couldn't really say she was wrong either; currency would be pretty useless in space after all.

"He's not showing you anything!"

The duo turned around and saw the trio of Ronnie Anne, Lincoln, and Clyde walking, or in Ronnie Anne's case stomping, to them. Ronnie Anne looked positively furious, while Lincoln looked nervous and Clyde... was pretty calm, actually.

"What brings you guys here?" Chandler asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ronnie Anne grabbed Chandler's hand and lifted it. "I'm here to stop you from either doing something stupid, or doing something that could damage the ship! Lincoln came along to stop me from beating the snot out of you!"

Chandler to Clyde. "And what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to count how long it takes Ronnie Anne to not go through with her threats," Clyde replied with a deadpan look.

Ronnie Anne aimed her palm at Clyde and shot a lighting bolt at him, yelling "shut up!" as the boy barely even flinched at the attsck.

"Look, Ronnie Anne, I wasn't planning to do anything," Chandler threw a look at Lola. "This girl here asked me if I could do something with the coin, since she said there's little reason for me to bring a coin to space."

Ronnie Anne threw a disapproving look at Lola, who flinched and promptly turned away and whistled, trying to act all innocent.

Then, Ronnie Anne opened her palm. "Hand over the coin."

Chandler took out the coin and calmly handed it over, Ronnie Anne closing her fist as Clyde promptly blurted:

"You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were bullying him."

Lincoln and Chandler looked utterly shocked at the thoughtless comment, while Ronnie Anne slowly turned to Clyde and shot a furious glare at him, electricity surging through her body.

"All I'm saying is, this reminds me a bit too much about how bullies work back at school," Clyde added, unfazed by the girl's reaction. "They corner someone, throw a couple threatening words at them, then demand something from them, with the bullied person handing the thing in fear."

Ronnie Anne released Chandler's hand and fully turned around, just in time for Clyde to finish:

"Didn't you want to break away from that image?"

Ronnie Anne remained silent. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths, each breath causing less and less electricity to surge through her body until she had turned back to normal.

"Yes, I do want to distance myself from my bully days as much as possible," Ronnie Anne opened her eyes again and walked past Clyde. "But if I have to act like that again to stop Chandler from mucking things up, then I will do it."

With her mind spoken, Ronnie Anne left the room, giving the kids some breathing space.

"Wow, Clyde, you took quite a big risk there," Lola remarked as she wiped some sweat off her forehead. "How did you stay so calm through that?"

"It's simple, really " Clyde put his arms behind his head and rolled his eyes. "Ronnie Anne's on a mission to convince everybody she's not a bully anymore. As angry as she is at Chandler, even she has to see that if she kept acting like that, it would be as if she had learned nothing at all."

"And now that I can bring it up," Lincoln turned to Chandler. "What happened between you and Ronnie Anne that put you two on bad terms?"

Chandler lowered his head, then paused before he sighed, "Let's just say, if I had known what would happen if I taught her how to defend herself, I would've taken a different approach to the one I took."

Lola raised an eyebrow. "I thought you taught her how to be a bully?"

"It's easy to mistake the two if the one being taught takes it to an extreme," Chandler folded his arms and closed his eyes. "And Ronnie Anne wasn't someone who would take a middle ground between putting the barest of efforts, or giving it her all."

"I see..." Lincoln scratched the back of his head. "I just wonder how long it'll be before she calms down: that was the angriest I've seen Ronnie Anne in a while, so-"

Suddenly, Ronnie Anne shouted from the cockpit:

"Everybody come quick! We're approaching a giant version of Science-O's head!"

Lincoln scratched the back of his head. "Huh, she recovered faster than I thought."

"From my experience, she usually recovers instantly, so she took longer than expected" Chandler sighed and calmly walked towards the cockpit. "Anyway, let's go see what she wants."

* * *

Once there, the team looked through the main window as they saw that Ronnie Anne's description was oddly spot-on: the planet they were approaching, Lisapolis, looked like a giant mechanical version of Lisa's head, glasses included.

"So this planet "Lisapolis" looks like a giant, mechanical version of Lisa's head..." Lola folded her arms and snickered. "Finally, a place big enough to hold Lisa's ego!"

"Nah, it's still far too small, I'm afraid," Lisa pushed some buttons, either not noticing or ignoring the quip. "Nevertheless, I'm going to activate the ship's defenses, everybody be ready just in case we have to evacuate."

"Why? The planet doesn't seem to have any significant defenses," Ronnie Anne folded her arms. "Even if they think we don't come in peace, what's the worst they could throw at us?"

Suddenly, the surface of the planet shook in an intense fashion as the "city square" split open, followed by a giant mechanical creature slowly climbing up the open square, before revealing themselves to the ship and letting out a gigantic roar.

"You just love tempting fate, don't you, Ronnie Anne?" Lisa asked as she pushed some buttons. "Everybody, get ready for defensive maneuvers!"

The robotic creature charged some energy on its mouth, and released a beam of energy the ship narrowly dodged, though some damage was still done to one of the wings.

"Left wing has been damaged!" Rita remarked, pushing some buttons. "I could go out and fix it, but that thing could recharge at any moment!"

Lisa gritted her teeth and got an idea. She pushed a button, and the damaged ship Ronnie Anne used was shot straight at the giant robot, though the most it did was bounce off its head.

"It's going to take more than that to destroy it," Lisa hastily turned to the trio. "Clyde! Ronnie Anne! Lincoln! I need you to go out there and fight that thing while mother unit fixes the wing!"

"Right!"

The trio ran to the deeper parts of the rocket, Chandler following them soon after as Carol got off her seat and opened a portal.

"Carol, what are you doing?!" Lisa exclaimed.

"I have an idea," Carol said as she stepped into the portal. "I'll be back in a minute!"

* * *

Carol jumped out the other end of the portal and landed nearby the spot the giant robot had emerged, just in time for the creature to charge another energy beam.

Carol, not having time to think things through, immediately shot some lighting at the robot, paralyzing both it and its beam long enough to get its attention. The robot soon turned around, and still charging the beam, Carol jumped away before the robot shot the energy beam at her, shooting a hole across the planet.

A hole that healed just as quickly as it was made.

A large metallic tree was the next thing thrown at the robot's head, and turning around again revealed Carol ripping off another tree, and getting ready to throw it as she shouted:

"If you want to get to that spaceship, you'll have to get through me first!"

The robot's eye glew, and from it another beam was shot, forcing Carol to jump away.

* * *

As that happened, Lori slammed her hand down the keyboard as she watched the fight from her monitor. "Of all the people who could distract this thing, why did it have to be Carol!?"

"I'm guessing everybody else was preparing for a counterattack, so-" Lupe answered, only to be meet by Lori's exasperated glare. "That was a rhetorical question, wasn't it?"

Just then, Lori contacted Proto-Lisa, who appeared on the screen with an exasperated look. "I should've known this was gonna happen as soon as I agreed to work with you, but are you going to call me every single time something unexpected happens, Lori?"

"No, only when that unexpected thing is a major problem, like Carol!" Lori stated before showing Carol fighting the giant robot. "If the lovechildren see Carol is on the planet, they're going to freak out!"

"Right, because compared to that, anything happening to the planetary guardian is peanuts in comparison," Proto-Lisa rolled her eyes and rubbed her forehead. "Listen, Lori; unless something happens that throws every single plan we've made up to this point through the wringer, don't contact me again."

Before Lori could even respond, Proto-Lisa cut off the call. Lori began spouting some angry nonsense before she slammed her fists down the keyboard and stomped out of the room, leaving a terrified Lupe to finally catch her breath alone.

* * *

Back with Carol, the cross-casted girl successfully dodged another blast from the robot, this one landing on a portal that then opened on top of the robot's head, hitting it with its own laser. This, of course, failed to destroy it even after several attempts, although it distracted it long enough to let Rita, now in her power armor, go out and check the damaged wing.

"Alright, the damage doesn't seem to be too severe, so I can rebuild the wing by crystalizing the fire," Rita said as she walked closer to the fiery wing. "At least, I hope I can do that."

Rita promptly crouched down and edged her hand closer to the fire, only for the heat from it to cause Rita to back away and wave her hand, a notable burn mark left on her glove.

"Mom!"

The woman turned around and saw Lola, with a one-armed space exoskeleton leaving her crystallized arm outside, slowly flying over to her side. "How's the wing doing?"

"More importantly, what are you doing here?!" Rita exclaimed, grabbing her glove. "Go back inside and let me handle this!"

"Mom, I know you're worried for me, but staying back inside to panic doesn't sound like a better option to me," Lola flew towards the fire and looked at her crystal arm. "Besides, let's just say my first scuffle with my counterpart gave me an idea."

Lola crouched down and leaned her crystal arm closer to the fire, the intense heat slightly illuminating the arm before, with a single touch from it, the fire slowly but surely crystallized, leaving an odd-shape to the now functional wing.

"And that should do it," Lola remarked as her crystal arm shattered, then reformed back to new on the spot. "Alright, Mom, go back inside and let me do the rest."

Rita, however, remained behind for a moment, looking silently at the fixed wing before she looked at her burnt glove, then clenched it. It's almost as if she was forgetting to ask why Lola wasn't going back inside as well.

"Mom, is something the matter?"

"... No, it's nothing."

Rita flew back inside to the rocket, taking a look back at Lola before she went in and closed the door.

* * *

Back at the cockpit, everybody reunited and looked as the giant robot prepared to fire another beam at the ship, having just found out about the fixed wing. Except this time, it wasn't going to aim for a wing.

It was going to aim for the entire ship.

"Alright everybody, except those named Lincoln and Lisa, sit down and put on your seat belts," Lisa replied as she grabbed the handle and pulled it forward. "We're going to have a slightly rough landing!"

The ship began speeding towards the charging robot, with Lynn Sr. quickly figuring out what this meant:

"Wait, your idea is to crash the ship through that thing?!" Lynn Sr. exclaimed, pulling his hair. "Are you insane?!"

"Not with the way I plan to do it!" Lisa touched her ear. "Lola! Encase this ship in crystal!"

Lola nodded, and without hesitation, she put her crystal arm down on the wing and quickly surrounded the ship on pink crystal, the cockpit window's crystal being see-through to allow everyone to see as the robot shot yet another energy beam.

Lola quickly rose a crystal shield from her spot and hid behind it as the beam hit the rocket, the crystal repelling the strike as the ship sped faster and faster towards the robot, with little cracks forming on the ship as it got closer and closer.

Just as one part of Lola's shield shattered, her entire view became orange-tinted as she looked around to see she was inside an orange bubble, then turned to her side to see Lincoln suddenly right next to her, who quickly repeated what she did: encasing the ship in even stronger orange crystal as it sped further.

"Sorry if you see this as me upstaging you, Lola."

"It's okay, I'm willing to let this one slide."

With the ship further speeding, the spacecraft crashed through the robot's head, shattering it to pieces and causing several parts of the robot to explode, before its entire figure blew up, pieces of it nearly falling on top of Carol before the girl teleported away.

The teleportation lead her right on the landing spot for the group's ship... or in this case, crash landing spot, as the ship crashed right on top of ti, narrowly missing Carol.

* * *

Back inside the cockpit, everybody looked at the strangely jungle-like surface of the planet as Lincoln and Lisa reunited with everyone, Lincoln's bubble popping soon after.

"So this is the surface of the planet, huh?" Lola remarked as she went from her space exoskeleton back to her normal outfit. "Not gonna lie: When I think of a planet made by Lisa, this is exactly what comes to mind."

"A highly sterilized, mechanical environment that can't house organic life?" Lisa sternly inquired, throwing a disapproving look at her sister.

"If it can't house organic things, then how do you explain the trees?" Clyde said in response.

"It's quite likely a tree made of an artificial element," Lisa replied, adjusting her glasses. "Perhaps nanomachines or some kind of man-made element of sorts, but I highly doubt it's made of an organic material."

"Whatever, we can discuss what the trees are made of later," Lola put a hand on her hip. "For now, we have to get out of here and tell Lisa's counterpart to give us the antidote!"

"And see why the master monitor asked us to head into this planet," Lynn Sr. added, standing up for a moment before he thought of something that made him hesitate. "Although, now that I think about it, is it even safe to go out there without a suit?"

"Now that father unit brings it up, this place looks so sterile I find it hard to believe it has an atmosphere that would allow us to breath normally," Lisa scratched her chin. "There's a chance we won't be able to breath at all if we step outside without wearing a suit."

"I can hear sounds from the outside just fine," Ronnie Anne said as she walked up to the window, and saw a Trashy... trashing around loudly. "Isn't an atmosphere require for sound to exist in the first place?"

"Yes, an atmosphere's required, but said atmosphere wouldn't need to be breathable, I think," Clyde answered back, taking a look through the window at the local wildlife. "And since I don't see any of the creatures outside notably breathing, there's no reason to believe the atmosphere's breathable."

 _It is._

Everybody looked around until Lisa returned the telepathic message. _Carol, is that you?_

 _Yes, I'm speaking telepathically to you right outside the landing spot_. Carol lowered her eyelids. _Which, by the way, you crashed into just a few meters away from crushing me as well!_

 _It was a desperate situation that required a desperate measure, okay?!_ Lisa responded, only to then bring up a point, _Besides, you could've just teleported back to our ship, right? Why didn't you do that?_

Carol facepalmed a few seconds later. _Just come here already, please._

The crystals surrounded the ship shattered, allowing the door of the ship to open and let everybody take a step into the new world. The first one was Ronnie Anne, who cheerfully ran downstairs, followed by Clyde and Lincoln.

"Hey, I bet this place's gravity is different from Earth!" Ronnie Anne rubbed her hands. "Let's give it a shot!"

Ronnie Anne jumped up, only to fall face-first on the ground, the manner not looking different than from how it would happen on Earth. "Well, color me disappointed."

"Color yourself lucky as well," Lincoln said as he helped Ronnie Anne stand up. "If the gravity had been any stronger, that crash could've turned you into mashed potatoes."

Ronnie Anne rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Lame-O, that statement really reassures me. But right now, I want to know where this gravity came from. Did it come with the atmosphere?"

"The gravity's artificial, no doubt," Chandler said as he took a look around. "Just like everything else on this planet."

"Considering that the planet houses actual life here, lacking gravity would mean they would drift off into space," Lynn Sr. said as he and the rest of the team left the spaceship. "Even so, that the gravity would be exactly like Earth is rather strange."

"Yeah, especially because it makes this place look like a different paint job of Earth: it looks different on the surface, but works exactly the same as there!" Ronnie Anne folded her arms and pouted. "Why make the place clearly alien, and yet make it function exactly like Earth?"

"Because ruining your expectations of a brand new world was too tempting."

The group turned around to watch a large monitor turn on, revealing static on it as Lisa's eyes widened, recognizing the voice as it added:

"Welcome to my world, everyone."

The monitor's static finally cleared up, revealing Proto-Lisa sitting on her throne on the other side, sporting a rather smug smile. And unlike Lisa's own smile, this one was intentionally creepy.

"Proto-Lisa!" Lincoln exclaimed, clenching his fists.

"Nice to see that you've improved your ability to showcase a fake fury, Lincoln," Proto-Lisa replied, rolling her eyes in bemusement. "Let's not kid ourselves, though, if there's somebody around your little group that has genuine anger towards me, it's my successor, your "sister" Lisa."

"Prototype me, we've come here for a couple of reasons," Lisa stated as she took a couple steps forward. "But before we tell you what they are, we'll warn you not to do anything stupid!"

"Me? A Lisa, doing something stupid? What do you think I am, a Leni?" Proto-Lisa rolled her eyes and scoffed. "But alas, I will humor you and be completely passive through your entire stay. If I do may ask in return, however, why should I worry not to do anything "stupid" during this little journey of yours?"

"Because Lincoln here isn't the passive little pansy he used to be back with Proto-Mud-O, Proto-Diva-O, and Proto-Goth-O!" Ronnie Anne answered, gently-and by this I mean hardly-patting Lincoln's back. "Now he's grown both a pair and a spine, and won't hesitant to give you the beating you deserve if you do anything to trigger him, which is still kinda hard to do, but not something you should strive for!"

"Geez, Ronnie Anne, be any more flattering and you'll make Lincoln blush," Clyde uttered with a deadpan tone.

"Yes, I've noticed: he was passive for so long, and now he's finally decided to step up his game and defend this reality," Proto-Lisa crossed her legs. "I do realize, however, that there's one particular problem that even he can't quite get rid of on his own."

The monitor briefly changed to reveal a spade symbol, which Lincoln quickly recognized could only mean one thing. "You know about Sincoln?!"

"Sincoln? Is that the name you gave your evil half?" Proto-Lisa chuckled to herself as the screen turned back to show her. "I have to admit, that's probably one of the better names you've come up with since you created this reality."

And then, Proto-Lisa caught a glimpse of Chandler, and lowered her eyelids. "I see, so the test subject Lulu was supposed to bring was taken by you. Interesting."

Chandler clenched his fist, electricity surging through it as Ronnie Anne remarked, "test subject? For what?"

"The reason I pick certain people to be test subjects doesn't matter. What matters is that they're test subjects for honorable goals," Proto-Lisa shrugged. "After all, in a world that's been as broken as this one for so long, if I don't figure out what we can do to fix it, then who will?"

"You're trying to _fix_ things, huh? How about you help us then? One of my friends, and doubt countless other people, were turned, or are about to turn into monsters thanks to a side-effect of Lisa's experiment," Lola stated, glancing at Lisa before she narrowed her eyes and turned back to the screen. "Can you fix that?"

"Everything at it's given time, Lola," Proto-Lisa replied, her tone making it clear she couldn't care less about giving the girl an actual answer. "For now, you and your group should focus on heading into the castle in the middle of the planet. You did see it while flying over here, right?"

"Yeah, although it was kinda hard to see at first because, oh I don't know, you summoned a giant robot to shoot a laser beam at us?!" Lisa snapped, stomping the ground as hard as she could.

"You would've done the same if your property was being approached by a foreign entity," Proto-Lisa blinked and turned to Lincoln. "Especiallly when facing the fact the Lincoln we're dealing with is not the same Lincoln who destroyed the original reality."

Lisa snickered. "As expected of my counterpart, she's smart enough to know our Lincoln and her Lincoln are different people!"

Lola rolled her eyes. "That's not a good thing, you know?"

"Anyway, there's a lot of things that need to be done, so the time for idle chit chat is over."

Proto-Lisa clapped her hands twice, and the monitor shut down as the floor suddenly transformed into moving tiles, with the ground the group stood on encasing their feet in cement-like square... things, stopping them right on the spot.

"What the-?!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed as she generated a lighting blade, and promptly swung it down, only for it to break on contact. "What are these things?!"

"Whatever they are, I don't think there's anything we can do to destroy them," Chandler said, shrugging and shaking his head. "The only thing we can do now is wait to see where these things drop us to."

Despite this statement having little to contradict it, this didn't stop Carol, the parents, the sisters and Ronnie Anne from trying all they could to release themselves from the cement-like objects, prompting the boys to take a deep breath as they entered the building.

* * *

Lori walked across the long, elaborate hallways of the castle, looking particularly similar to the ones in the Lincolnism church: Flags decorated the hallways, though instead of sporting a spades symbol and stylized representation of Lincoln, they sported squares, and a stylistic representation of Proto-Lisa instead.

There were also statue-like entities stationed across the sideways, each holding a long halberd on their left hands, as well as having a pair of words written on their foreheads.

Lori eventually stopped when she bumped into the person she was looking for: Proto-Lisa, who surrounded her in a telekinetic aura that stopped her on her tracks. "You were looking for me, weren't you?"

"Yes, I was," Lori narrowed her eyes. "Lincoln and his group arrived at the planet, I got that, but what's the plan from here?"

"For now, just get ready to do your part in helping with Lincoln's dilemma," Proto-Lisa replied, snapping her fingers to release Lori from her telekinetic prison. "It won't be long before they're forced to split apart. Or at least, I hope they decide to split apart."

Proto-Lisa scratched her chin and looked elsewhere. "Otherwise, a lot of things might have to happen in short order."

"Right, because that's the worst that could happen," Lori rolled her eyes and kept walking. "Anyway, I'll go look for something to use as a mount. Good luck with whatever you plan to do."

Proto-Lisa nodded, and as soon as Lori left the view, a certain unexpected visitor appeared: Lulu, who retracted her wings and landed right next to Proto-Lisa as she said, "Sorry for not coming sooner, I needed to get to a concert-"

"Your private life is of no concern to me," Proto-Lisa folded her arms. "Are you ready to do your part?"

"Right, sure, totally ready!" Lulu blinked twice. "What was my part again?"

Proto-Lisa rubbed her forehead, then held the winged pop idol with her tail before she answered, with a stern tone and glowing eyes:

"Follow me."

Lulu's eyes turned completely green as she responded, with a deadpan tone of voice:

"Yes, Master Lisa."

* * *

 **Next Chapter Preview...**

"Hello everyone, Proto-Lisa here."

Luan is sitting down the Shadow of the backyard's tree while Waltz chirps at her.

"So, it seems that Lincoln and his group have reached my planet."

A pair of butterflies approach Luan, and once she touches them, they turn completely golden.

"Perfect, everything's going according to plan."

Leni appears, and after a bit of talking, she and Leni find themselves in some kind of pillar of light.

"Soon, everybody will see what the Lincoln-Buster is capable!"

Then, in quick succession, Luan is shown on top of the afterlife train, then inside some place filled with chocolate, before stopping in a room where Proto-Lisa and Proto-Luna are talking.

"Next time, on Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn..."

The prototypes' talk grows more and more intense until they start fighting each other, Luan talking with Leni at the sidelines.

" **A Venture Through Time! Out of the New, Into the Old!** "

Luan looks through the window, then talks some more with Leni, who's seemingly growing exasperated with the comedian.

"Don't miss it."

The final shot showed Luan getting ready to throw one of the yellow butterflies, a determined expression on her face.


	51. Blast to the Past

**And here we got the next chapter in what will be a very short weekly schedule. Because my phone just won't let me work :D**

 **Next chapter will be very short, like a vignette, so no next chapter preview this chapter.**

 **I will reply to reviews, though:**

 **1) Nobody245: I'll try.**

 **2) Observant Guest:**

 *** Here's another chapter and tidbit: there were going to be space battles.**

 *** Link appeared in a one-shot spinoff, Genderbended, before this story. Just in case you wanna know.**

 *** And they both faced off against God like, adorable creatures. Coincidence?**

 *** Better to have another ally than another enemy.**

 *** It will, after All, Proto-Lisa's a scientist, and we all know how well science and religion mix together.**

 *** They came back and now they left. Oh well.**

 **And now, to the chapter!**

* * *

 **Episode 51: A Venture Through Time! Out of the New, Into the Old!**

* * *

The day was still calm in Royal Woods: even though Lisa's group had already left for space, nothing strange was happening yet, which was more than a welcomed change by everybody.

This included Luan, who sat under the backyard tree's shadow as she just listened the birds chirp, including Waltz chirping right at her.

Of course, that was only what Luan was hearing.

 _Hey, that's my shadow! You might be one of my owners, but I still hold that shadow very personally! So come on, get off!_

Luan didn't pay attention, seeing as she couldn't hear him in the first place, and calmly looked at a butterfly slowly flying towards her.

She raised her hand and lifted her finger, allowing the butterfly to land on it.

Luan, smiling at the winged creature standing on her finger, promptly touched the butterfly, mostly to see what would happen.

Rather than escape, the creature laid still as it was touched, followed by it being surrounded in a yellow light, which slowly cracked before shattering completely, revealing the butterfly's new golden look.

A look that seemingly disturbed Waltz.

 _Oh dang, she's doing things unconsciously again! I need to tell someone about this!_

The bird spread his wings and flew away just as Luan repeated what she did to another butterfly.

With both butterflies on her head, Luan took a deep breath and scratched her chin, trying to figure out what she could do while her siblings and parents were out on their space adventure.

Luna, Lana, and Lucy were busy with their own things, Lily was too young to do anything too dangerous, and Lori was nowhere to be seen.

Luckily, she remembered one sibling was still on Earth: Leni, who conviently walked up to her with both her arms folded behind her back... and Waltz on her shoulder.

"A little bird told me you were here," Leni spoke, with Waltz glaring at Luan as she added, "Said something about you playing with some butterflies?"

Luan raised an eyebrow. "You can speak animal?"

"Lana translated his chirping for me."

Leni grabbed one of the butterflies and leaned it closer to her eyes.

"Now, back on topic... you touched these butterflies, didn't you?"

"Y-Yeah, I did, and for some reason, they turned golden when I did," Luan answered as she stood up and twiddled her fingers. "Do you have any idea about what happened to them? Did I turn them into something else?"

Leni closed her eyes and hummed as she thought about it. Once she got an idea, she snapped her fingers.

"Timeflies!"

"When you're having fun," Luan chuckled out loud as Leni kept her laughter to herself. "But seriously speaking, what do you mean by timeflies?"

"Special type of butterflies that can affect the events of one timeline and split into several different ones, depending on what was done," Leni explained. "Although, of course, you won't, like, see it happen if we remain in this time period."

Leni smiled as she returned the timefly.

"The past, however, sounds like a good place to test them out."

"I get what you mean, but how are we going to get there?" Luan asked, putting her hands on her hips. "I only really know how to stop time in a couple spots and... actually, that's pretty much it." Luan then smirked and giggled, "I guess time does wait for one man".

"Well, guess it's time for an impromptu lesson, don't you think?" Leni smiled as Waltz raised an eyebrow at her. "I'll teach you how to travel through time so we can test out the timeflies you created."

Despite the obvious opportunity to try out something new, Luan was less than thrilled about it. Not enough to summon an aura around her, but notable enough to be caught by Leni.

"Is something the matter?"

"Leni, if I remember correctly, you and Lori appointed Carol as our mentor because you two were busy with something, and it's been a while since Lori gave us our lesson with the holograms," Luan twiddled her fingers again. "Are you sure you'll be able to teach me how to travel through time?"

"Tsk, you don't teach somebody anything for a month, and suddenly you're the most untrustworthy person around," Leni folded her arms. "You're not exactly one to talk considering what you become on April Fools Day, you know?"

Luan snapped her fingers.

"Wait, now that I think about, if I learn how to travel through time, maybe I can find the exact moment my april fools day persona emerged!"

"So, are you going to take the lesson or not?" Leni raised an eyebrow. "Your answer, like, doesn't really go with what I said before."

"Yes! I'm gonna take it!" Luan clenched her fist with determination. "As long as I can get to change whatever happens in it!"

Waltz flinched and looked positively horrified, while Leni looked elsewhere and spoke with a casual tone:

"Travel through time and changing important events on a whim, without considering the consequences of the change? I don't know about you, but..."

Leni turned back to Luan and lowered her eyelids. "Doesn't that totes sound like something one of the Proto-Sisters would do?"

Luan flinched and took a step back, only just now realizing what she was doing. "N-No! It's nothing like that! I just want to-"

"Change the time when you ruined your friendship with Maggie?" Leni tilted her head. "Or, perhaps, change the first time your less empathetic persona popped up? Both of these changes could have dozens of unforeseen consequences, you know?"

Luan lowered her head and frowned as Leni continued:

"The power to control time itself is a very big responsibility. The very flow of the timeline hinges on this power being used wisely, something that your counterpart failed to do."

Luan raised her head. "How do you know that?"

"Well, think of it like this: you rule over time itself, in a dimension where time has yet to take effect: in the mortal world, nothing ages, or advances, or even changes unless you say so."

Leni folded her arms and circled around Luan. "Such a power, in such a situation, sounds like it would be easy to abuse, don't you think? To control when time goes forward or backwards..."

"And failing to make it go forward or backwards at the right time could cause such a catastrophe, the sister fight protocol couldn't fix it," Luan took a deep breath. "Okay, Leni, I get it. I'm not going to change any of the events we're going to see."

Leni nodded. "It's a teeny bit more complicated than that, but... yeah, basically."

With that said, Leni grabbed her glasses and split them in half, before lifting one half up, causing the sun's light to go through and open a portal on the ground.

"You wanna go first?" Leni asked as she combined her glasses back together.

Luan raised an eyebrow. "What did you do, exactly?"

"I opened a portal to the timestream so we can head backwards in time," Leni explained, her tone almost suggesting she was having trouble believing what she was saying as well. "If I wanted to go forward, I'd have to open it in the sky... Okay, look, it's, like, very complicated, but also perfectly safe, so if you could go down so we can get a move on."

Luan rolled her eyes and jumped into the portal, followed by Leni after she pushed Waltz out of her shoulder. Afterwards, the duo fell through a beam of light, with the colors slowly growing dim and... Well, colorless, as they fell.

"Welcome to the timestream, Luan!" Leni chirped, clapping joyously. "I know it's probably a lot less exciting than you expected, but hey, not everything can be a spectacle."

"Yeah, that's a lesson I've learned the hard way in the past," Luan looked around. "I'm just kinda disappointed I won't be able to mess with the timeline. I mean, can you imagine-"

"It wouldn't happen either way, actually."

Luan blinked twice and raised an eyebrow.

"Changing whatever we see in the past wouldn't really affect our family members whatsoever."

"But then, that means..." Luan's look slowly grew flabbergasted. "None of our siblings are susceptible to timeline changes?"

Leni nodded. "It's a bit more complicated than that, but in simple terms... Yes, that's the gist of it."

"So, wait, if neither you, nor me, nor any of our siblings are effected by changes in the timeline, why would you tell me all about time responsibility anyway!?"

"Because while we aren't affected, everyone else is: Ronnie Anne, Clyde, Lincoln's friends, the Sadie Hawkins dates, Maggie, pretty much everyone that exists in the new reality is affected," Leni answered with a casual tone. "After all, while we existed before time did, the rest of this existence only came after time had been established as a separate entity from you."

Luan's eyes widened. "So if I blow this everyone else will pay the price?!"

Leni somberly nodded. Luan followed this by leaning back against the beam of light. "Geez, when you put it like tha-"

And then the beam of light remembered it wasn't a solid object and made Luan fall through it, with Leni barely grasping Luan's finger before she went through.

* * *

On the other side of the portal Luan fell through, the comedian fell on top of a train that was currently riding off to some unknown location.

But Luan wasn't alone, as she turned around to see one familiar face, Great Grandma Harriet, and one unfamiliar face, a man in his... Adult-ies.

"Arturo, this is the last time I'm telling you this: head back to your seat and wait for the train to reach the afterlife!" Harriet sternly exclaimed.

"Again with your lies!" the man shouted. "This train can't take anybody to the afterlife! It has to lead somewhere else!"

"Like where?!" Harriet folded her arms. "In case you haven't noticed, this train has been riding in circles since you keep forcing it to stay on the ground!"

"And what else do you expect me to do?! Let it take us off to whatever hell dimension you think is an afterlife!?" Arturo snapped, stomping the ground. "Can't you see this thing can't take us anywhere but a worse state of existence!?"

Harriet rubbed her forehead. "What are you talking about this time?"

"He's talking about the truth."

Harriet and Luan's eyes widened as a figure entered the traintop to Arturo's side: it was a large puppet-like version of Luan, though the eyes were rather peculiar...

"Arturo... What is this thing?!" Harriet summoned a sword made of her soul energy. "What have you done!?"

"What had to be done: Progenitor Luan has been keeping our family safe for generations! Without her protection, my family would've gone extinct!" Arturo responded. "I must get Progenitor Luan back to her full strength! And for that, this train can't go to the afterlife!"

Harriet gritted her teeth. "Arturo, you're mad! I mean, just think for a second: how do those two things correlate or connect at all!?"

"Hehehe... Don't act foolish, Harriet," Proto-Luan chuckled. "You know very well that this train has a passenger that belongs to me! She must be returned to life this instant!"

Harriet raised an eyebrow. "You mean...?"

Before an answer could be given, Luan was tied and pulled by lavender strings, taking her out of the period.

* * *

"What was that?"

"Something you shouldn't think about too much," Leni stated. "We've gone far back in time, but it's not far enough. We need to travel further back."

"Okay, but any specific reason why we can't just pop to wherever you want to take me?" Luan asked before she snapped her fingers. "Like snap your fingers or something?"

"You're greatly overestimating my control over your domain," Leni frowned. "I only have so much knowledge about how, like, your powers work Luan. I can only do so much, so please be patient with me."

"Alright then," Luan raised an eyebrow. "So where are we going now?"

Leni hummed, and after a little waiting, the pair went through another part of the beam of light.

* * *

The duo landed in the middle of what could be best described as a dead zone. Oh, there was grass, and flowers, and trees and all that stuff, but as for animals? Other humans? There was absolutely nobody else from miles around.

"Huh? Where are we?"

"This place, Luan, is the very beginning of the creation of the new reality, the "Production Era," Leni answered as she looked around the vast, empty wasteland with a smile. "And as you can see, it totes lives up to the description."

"So, it's the new reality before it was inhabitted and all that stuff?" Luan asked.

"Pretty much," Leni squinted her eyes as she scanned her surroundings. "I'm sure if we look around long enough, we should be able to find your and the sisters' previous forms."

"What?" Luan raised an eyebrow as she looked around as well. "Our previous forms?"

"Think of it as a physical placeholder until your forms could be completed," "It should be easy to find them: they look just like how you do, but with the angel wings and dark eyes. That, and they're the only things living in this period of time."

Luan frowned.

"So it's basically like the beginning of the original reality?"

Suddenly, Luan heard a familiar laughter. Her laughter. Which was coming from a spot nearby that was lit by most of the colors of the castes: pink, navy blue, light blue, turquoise, yellow, red, and grey.

The only colors missing were lavender, green, and orange.

Luan promptly walked towards the collection of colors, with Leni following her once she noticed.

As Luan suspected, the source of the colors were the unfinished versions of the Neo-Sisters, coming from the glow emitted by their angelic wings. However, they didn't show any traits from their actual angelic forms besides the wings: instead looking mostly the same as the present day, but with eyes the same color as their caste color and black sclera.

"These are-!"

"Us right at the beginning of the new reality, before we got upgraded to our current forms," Leni scratched the back of her head. "During this time, we were pretty much nothing but cardboard cut-outs."

"Wait, we were born from cardboard?!" Luan exclaimed.

Leni rolled her eyes. "It's a figure of speech, Luan. It means that the beings we used to be, the beings that we're looking at right now, are pretty basic in terms of personality."

Luan quickly got what Leni meant when she saw her first version of herself chuckling as she looked around the vast grassland. Then she laughed as she saw her other sisters doing their thing: Lori on the phone, Leni knitting, Lisa inventing, and so on and so forth.

And by the time she began laughing at the sky, Luan had just about enough.

"My goodness, if this is how I acted before the god thing came up, no wonder you guys found me so annoying!"

Leni twiddled her fingers. "I didn't, like, think you were that annoying."

"Whatever, let's just go a bit further back now, please," Luan said as she covered her ears. "I'm starting to feel in physical pain from hearing my laughter so much."

Leni flashed a little concerned look before she opened a portal and the duo went through it, returning to the timestream.

As they kept falling, the beam began shaking, forcing the girls ro cling to each other. "What's going on?!"

"The timestream shakes whenever it goes through an intense battle, and this shaking is only so violent because it's being done by Lincoln." Leni explained.

Luan's eyes widened. "Wait, does that mean..."

"Yes, Luan," Leni smiled. "We're totes heading into the original reality."

* * *

The first prototypical point of time the duo visited involved Proto-Lincoln, Proto-Lola, and Proto-Lynn standing in the middle of a giant collection of chocolates, with a box of then standing on a pillar that the prototype boy approached.

"Well, here we are, the chocolate reserves," Proto-Lola said, folding her arms. "All the chocolate that used to be in this reality is stored here. Now, how about you stop pestering us about them and-"

Proto-Lincoln snapped his fingers, and Proto-Lola was immediately frozen inside an orange crystal, with the prototype diva trying her hardest to get out as Proto-Lynn growled:

"Why the hell did you do that!?"

"Because you two, who are speaking to the very embodiment of the Maker's omnipotence, dare to speak to me as if you were superior," Proto-Lincoln turned around, flashing a furious glare. "As you have been doing for millions of years."

Proto-Lincoln grabbed the box of chocolates and took a good look at it. "And as one of your many offenses, you sealed away all the chocolate I wished to share with our children, an act I didn't understand until now."

"What's there to not understand?!" Proto-Lynn snapped, stomping the ground. "We confiscated it because we like it too much, and if the children started thinking they could get on our side with-"

"Stop blabbering nonsense, it's obvious that's but a cover up," Proto-Lincoln grabbed one chocolate ball. "There is a much more critical, much more selfish reason!"

The chocolate ball slowly became pure white, which caught everyone's attention.

"You see, chocolate isn't just any ordinary snack food..."

Proto-Lincoln raised his hand and exclaimed:

"It is the power of a god, sealed in candy form!"

It was then that Leni and Luan chose to leave, for things had gotten far too bizarre for their tastes.

* * *

The next period of time they reached involved a large ocean, with Atlantis floating above it as a yellow and blue light fought above it, and an orange glow could be seen on the ocean's surface.

The two lights eventually revealed themselves to be Proto-Lana and Proto-Luan, who exclaimed in unison:

"Atlantis is my domain!"

Just then, the orange light shook and vanished, before reappearing above the city, right after sending both prototypes crashing into the ocean.

The light revealed himself as Proto-Lincoln, who then grabbed Atlantis with both hands and yelled:

"If you can't decide who rules over this, then neither of you will!"

The prototype threw the city into the ocean, with the impact so severe to unleash a titanic tsunami that convinced Luan and Leni to leave before it engulfed them.

* * *

The next, and possibly final, period of time they visited took place in what looked like a throne room, with Proto-Luna standing away from the thrones as she glared at the one standing on top of them: Proto-Lisa.

"This reality you've been governing is going to be destroyed so it can be replaced for a new one!"

"No it won't! As long as we can appease Lincoln with Lincolnism, we can surely get him to change his mind about the destruction of our world!"

"Of all the millions of years you could've appeased Lincoln, why choose until he's literally days away from destroying everything to do so?" Proto-Lisa sternly pointed out. "That won't appease him. If anything, it'll only be proof that he has every right to destroy this world."

"How can you say that?!" Proto-Luna stomped the ground. "Are you really okay with him destroying this world!?"

"It's what The Maker chose for him to do: he had planned him for the be one of us to go on to destroy this reality and make a new one, remembering the mistakes he and we did, and making sure they don't wind up being repeated," Proto-Lisa pointed out. "If anything, you and the rest of our sisters, who preach on and on about how The Maker knows everything and we should do what he told us to do, should have no problem accepting this little fact."

"Except this isn't a fact, it's nothing more than one of your crazy conspiracies! The Maker, the being who gave us the power to rule and an entire reality to shape into an utopia, ultimately wanted this reality to be destroyed?!"

"He gave us the power to rule in order to test the waters: our reign was never meant to be eternal, sister," Proto-Lisa pointed out once more. "Now that the waters have been tested, and Lincoln knows better than ever what needs to be changed for the better, we have no purpose anymore."

"Just listen to yourself: you're advocating for the destruction of an entire world, of an entire species!" Proto-Luna clenched her fists. "The world we've been building since the beginning, all the resources and effort we put into making it as perfect as possible, all gone in an instant because Lincoln won't listen to reason!"

" _Lincoln_ won't listen to reason?" Proto-Lisa repeated with a tone of disgust. "What " _reason_ " is there for him to listen to when all of our actions, your and the rest of our sisters alike, make sense only to yourself?

"Don't you make this sound like it's about us!"

"It's been about nothing _but_ us for millions of years! Luna this, Leni that, Lori there, and so on! Lincoln might as well not even have existed seeing as how the entire reality was made to _our_ liking. His word meant nothing to us."

Proto-Luna narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. "Everybody has a specific function to allow the universe to function-"

"Then what is Lincoln's function, sister unit?" Proto-Lisa sternly responded. "What job could Lincoln have that involves barely seeing us, barely talking with us, and barely being aware of this dying reality?!"

And as Proto-Luna gritted her teeth some more, Luan scratched her chin and thought about it, while Leni was too busy glaring at the prototypes to notice.

"Be honest: if Lincoln wasn't going to destroy the reality, if he had never had that destiny chained to him... would you have created Lincolnism regardless?"

Proto-Luna's eyes widened, before she shook them off and summoned an energy axe. "That's it! I've humored your mind games long enough!"

Proto-Lisa scoffed as she snapped her fingers, summoning several flying blasters. "The only one playing mind games with you, sister, is yourself."

And as the prototypes began fighting, Luan scratched the back of her head. "Geez, I don't know which argument to side with."

"Neither: They're both progenitors, so they're both wrong," Leni bluntly stated.

"But which is the lesser evil?" Luan scratched her chin. "And which one is the one we should be listening?"

"Neither of course!" Leni stated, growing increasingly exasperated. "Like I said, they're both progenitors! Neither can be in the right!"

Luan narrowed her eyes. "Because they're both progenitors and that's it?"

"Yes! For goodness sake, I thought it was, like, obvious!" Leni rubbed her forehead. "After everything they've done to us, why would you ever humor the idea that they could be in the right?"

With that said, Leni looked back at the fight while Luan walked away to think, rubbing her forehead as she gave further thought to Proto-Lisa's words.

And as she tried to remember anything that could help her better understand, a bubble came out of her forehead, showing a past-future?-event inside it.

"I swear these powers were designed to come out at the most random of times."

Luan, with some trial and error, took out some more bubbles and saw the events within: outside of her April Fools stunt, she saw how Lincoln was kicked out of the house for being bad luck, then having his cereal denied, then forced to go on a date with Ronnie Anne to get Lori and Bobby back together, even how Leni pushed her accumulated workload during Spring cleaning day.

And for some reason, the last one upset her the most.

Then she walked to the windows and looked at the world outside: just as Clyde saw in his dream, with the protophilim living in squalor as they gave their prayers to the sisters... But not to Proto-Lincoln.

Then she saw how imagery of them were all over the place... But nothing for Proto-Lincoln.

Luan quickly put two and two together, and remembering she still had her timeflies, she walked back to the fight between the proto-rocker and the proto-genius... Just in time to see them struggling not to be sucked into a portal, showing the moon on the other side.

"How can you do this and not admit you're insane?!" Proto-Lisa yelled.

"For crying out loud, shut up!" Proto-Luna yelled back. "If you're not going to help us avoid extinction, then at least go somewhere your pessimism will be more appreciated!"

Angered at the statement, Luan did the "square camera" gesture at the duo, gaining Leni's attention.

"Luan, what are you thinking!?" Leni said.

"Proto-Lisa has a point, Leni: the other progenitors have been treating their version of Lincoln like crap... Just like how we've treated our own version of him badly before."

"Luan, what we saw earlier was nothing but snippets!" Leni stated. "You can't make a judgement based on little-to-no evidence!"

"If we really couldn't do that, then half the drama we've had with Lincoln half these years wouldn't have happened, would they?" Luan sternly asked. "And besides, you can't say it's better to leave the progenitors unharmed after everything they did to us, right?"

Leni took a couple steps back. "Well.. n-no, b-but... you see... l-like..."

Leni narrowed her eyes. "I really don't like how you're talking to me right now!"

Luan rolled her eyes and grabbed one of her timeflies as she walked closer to get a better look at the pair of prototypes.

"Luan-!"

Before Leni could do anything, Luan aimed her palm at her and summoned a yellow field around her, greatly slowing down the fashionista to the point it looked like she had frozen in place.

Guess immunity to timeline changes didn't come with immunity to time slowing.

With Leni no longer pestering her, Luan aimed the timefly, and once she had perfect aim for Proto-Luna, she snapped her fingers and sent the supernatural butterfly at her, before throwing another one at a box of chocolates nearby.

Both the box and Proto-Luna glew yellow for a second after the butterfly hit them, causing them to fall right into the moon portal, followed by Proto-Lisa, the portal closing afterwards.

With that done, Luan snapped her fingers and Leni was released from her time prison, with the fashionista not happy in the slightest about what had happened.

"Do you have any idea what you have done!?" Leni snapped as she opened a portal to the timestream. "Who knows what kind of changes you've done to the timeline! The people who got swapped, who were erased from existence, events that went completely differently because both progenitors fell in instead of just one!"

But Luan paid no attention as she walked to the timestream and entered it, followed by Leni.

* * *

Once back at the present, Leni closed the portal and took a deep, heavy breath to calm down, while Luan folded her arms and walked back to the tree, sitting under its shade as Leni spoke:

"You promised me you wouldn't change the timeline, Luan. You _promised_. As soon as you realize that you could do things for the better, you ruin it. And that's, like, not cool."

Luan didn't respond.

"Look, I don't want you to think I'm the bad girl in this situation, nor that it's your fault. All I want, is for you to no longer pull a Joker on me!"

Luan's eyes widened. "What do you mean by Joker?"

Leni, realizing what she said, immediately ran away, with Luan not even bothering to chase after her sister. Instead, she looked up and said out loud:

"Well, I lost Leni's trust in helping you, guys. I hope something good came out of it."

* * *

On a room inside the castle of Lisapolis, a room with a ton of gadgets, the box of chocolates suddenly landed on a table, gaining the attention of a certain lovechild.

"Now, where did this come from?"


	52. Interlude

**Charging problems, my phone being abused... *sigh*...**

 **Let's just get this over with.**

* * *

 **Episode 52: Lovechild Interlude.**

* * *

Back where we left off, with the Lovechildren, the children looked at the oddly Lincoln-like Link, some in wonder, most in confusion.

"So, I've heard about children with Lincoln's sisters, and even some with their friends, but I've never heard of a Link before," Lemy said as he scanned the boy. "So what even is his parentage?"

Liberty quickly pushed Lemy aside, earning a furious look from the guy.

"Isn't it obvious? Link is a lovechild born from Lincoln and his female counterpart, Linka."

...

"What?!"

"A child born between Lincoln... And his female self?!" Lupe pulled her hair. "Is that even possible!?"

"Dad is God, he can do pretty much anything," Lacy turned back to Link. "Although, to be honest, I can't think of a single reason for why he would give birth to such a child. At least in our cases, we were to be his children at best-"

Lupa narrowed her eyes. "His toys at worst."

"But what would give him an excuse to outright breed with himself to make such a child?" Lacy scratched her head.

"Simply put, he was made to be your bodyguard," Liberty patted Link forward. "Since Lincoln was coming here, this boy here is the closest thing you got to a perfect counter to his omnipotence."

Liberty snickered. "And by "counter," I mean you can use him as a human shield."

"Shouldn't you be changing that attitude, then?" Lemy inquired, folding his arms. "After all, you're talking about the son of two types of Lincoln."

"Hey, Proto-Luna's the one who chose to make females the dominant gender in Lincolnism, not me," Liberty replied with a shrug. "You're a happy exception to the rule, but that's about it."

Lemy gripped his knuckles, but quickly calmed down. "Whatever, this isn't worth fretting over."

"True that, especially considering who else is here," Liberty stated, putting her hands on her hips. "Judging by the certain signsture my ship discovered, it appears that Carol Pingrey is on the planet."

"The Love Slayer?!" everybody exclaimed in shock and horror.

"If the Love Slayer, as you call her, is here, then there might be reason to worry," Lupe scratched her chin. "But then again, the experiment's reaction would be much greater than all your reactions combined."

"Why would the experiment care about the love slayer?" Lemy inquired. "And in fact, what is this experiment you're talking about?"

"You haven't heard about the experiment housed in Lisapolis?" Lupe asked incredulously.

"Mother Luna has kept all information about this planet, and everything Aunt Lisa related, top secret," Lemy answered. "Even I, who has greater clearance than most lovechildren, haven't seen any mention of an experiment."

Lupe scratched her chin. "I see, so even the children of God don't know everything."

Lupa shot a glare at Lupe. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Lupe shook her head. "Nothing, nevermind that. Follow me so I can get you some equipment, just in case you need it."

The lovechildren nodded and followed Lupe until they reached a metallic door, where metal-hitting sounds could be heard within.

"I'll go first," Link said as he walked to the door. "Knowing Aunt Lisa, this room could blow up any seco-"

Suddenly, the door blew up, and as everyone shouted "as if on cue!"-and Liberty laughed-Link slowly opened his eyes as a female voice said:

"Oh hey! A new test subject!"

Once fully open, the first thing Link caught a glimpse of... was of a rather impressive pair of mounds, causing him to blush red:

"Br-Br-Br-Br-Br-"

"-Eats!" Lemy and the rest thought in shock, with lighting flashing for a moment.

After another quick moment, Link jumped away and the girl stood up, dusting herself as she cheerfully introduced herself:

"My name is Gloom Loud! I'm Lupe's gadgetry assistant! I make gadgets!"

"You don't look like a Lulu at all!" the lovechildren remarked in unison.

"That's 'cause I'm not: I'm a lovechild born from Lincoln and Maggie."

After a brief scan from Link, the boy said. "It shows."

Gloom just giggled at the statement, while the rest of the lovechildren group held back their laughter.

Regardless, Lupe adjusted her glasses and walked past Gloom. "Please follow me."

* * *

"Everyone, please formally meet Gloom Loud," Lupe said as Gloom cheerfully waved hello. "As she just told you, she's a Lincoln-Maggie lovechild, and she works as my gadget-maker, and assistant during experiment maintenance."

"Great, another child to add to the pile," Lupa remarked, folding her arms. "So, anyway, what is she? A supporrive character? A minor character?"

Lupe shrugged. "She's here."

"I'm here!" Gloom chirped.

"And I'm sorry for you," Lupa finished.

"By the way, as a child between Lincoln and Maggie, your caste color would be based on your mother," Lacy remarked as she walked closer to the girl. "So, what caste was she from?"

"The Luan caste!" Gloom answered without hesitation.

"But gadgetry is the field of the Lana and Lisa caste," Lizy pointed out. "The Luan caste are more along the line of entertainers: how did you get to this point?"

"Let me guess, you sold your dignity to Dad so you didn't have to be your Mom's chew toy?" Lupa asked with a sly smile.

Gloom tilted her head. "Speaking from experience?"

Lupa frowned. "I don't get the question."

"Anyway, we're not going to get anywhere by snipping at each other," Lupe pushed some buttons on a console. "If you could be kind enough to look at your right."

The lovechildren did as requested, and with a push of a button, a series of weapons phased through the ground, hovering in the air as the lovechildren walked closer to them and scanned them, all while Lupe spoke:

"These are weapons created by using a bit of Dad's blood and morphing its shape to resemble some kind of weapon. With these things, you should be able to stun, if not actually damage Dad, in case he ever chose to attack you."

Lupa promptly grabbed the scythe-shaped weapon, and after taking a look at it, she shattered it with her knees, a bit of the blood-like substance on it falling on Lupa's leg, giving her a notable burn as the weapon dissipated into light.

"The Lin-Scythe!" Lupe and Gloom panicked in unison.

"Lupa, what the heck did you do that for!?" Leía exclaimed, shooting a glare at the goth.

"Having dad's disgusting hands on me is too much," Lupa summoned her soul scythe. "I'm not going to touch a weapon made from him."

Finally, Lupe grew exasperated. "Okay, we didn't spend a long time building these things just to have you smash them as a sign of rebellion! If you have a problem with it, then go wait outside!"

Lupa rolled her eyes and left the room, Lacy hastily following her to make sure she didn't do anything funny, along with Lemy.

This left the twins, Link, and Liberty at the room, With Lupe calming down soon after. "Okay, now that that's dealt with, let me show you what this weaponry is capable of!"

* * *

Lupa leaned against a wall as Lacy stood next to her, clearly sporting a disapproving look. "You went too far just now and you know it!"

"Right, but they went too far too by creating weapons with Dad's blood!" Lupa growled, clenching her fists. "You know better than anybody what I think about Dad; I'd rather die than to use something made from him!"

"I know, but for crying out loud, you could've just chosen not to use the weapon!" Lacy growled. "Now, we have one less weapon to use against Dad, and you have an injury that only he can heal!"

"That's if he chooses to heal me," Lupa glanced at her burn. "Besides, I'm a daughter of God: I'll heal this injury eventually whether he lifts a finger or not."

Lacy rubbed her forehead as she growled in absolute exasperation, just in time for her to notice two things: the rest of the lovechildren reuniting with them, and Lemy looking wordlessly at the planet on the horizon.

"What are you looking at, Lemy?"

The boy, without taking his bandaged eyes off the shining planet, simply answered:

"Planet Tokyo."

"Planet what-now?" Leia asked.

"It's a colonized planetoid that was used as the base for the creation of Mother Luna's first planet," Lemy lowered his head. "At least, that's what I've been told."

"It's really pretty to look at," Lizy blurted.

"Maybe a little too bright, though," Lupa said, covering her eyes a little. "O swear, if it was any bigger, it could pass off for a star."

Leia rolled her eyes. "Now that's what I call an overstatement."

Lupa shot a glare at Leia. "And you're what I call a pain in the ass!"

And as the sisters began fighting, Lemy turned back to the planet and looked at something that appeared to be flying away from it... Something that was quickly approaching their spot.

"Everybody back away!"

The lovechildren obliged and dodged the incoming flying object, which crashed right on the platform hard enough to slightly crack it, causing a huge cloud of smoke that was soon parted by the thing seemingly running in circles and spreading its arms.

Except as it turned out, it wasn't just one thing, but two: these being Tabby and Polly Pain, the latter dusting her hands as the former retracted her wings.

"Welp, looks like this place does have an atmosphere after all!" Polly chirped as she stretched. "We took a big risk heading straight here rather than go back to Earth."

"You were the one who took a risk," Tabby pointed out.

Polly put her hands on her hips. "Right, you and your caste can breath in space, I forgot."

Tabby reached for her pocket and took out a gadget of sorts. "Anyway, according to the radar, Giggles and Haiku's corpses should be somewhere around this planet."

"I bet they're inside test tubes with a bunch of stuff pasted on top of them," Polly shrugged. "Either that, or they've been turned into cyborg minions."

Then, Tabby took a quick look around and spotted the lovechildren, looking at the duo with curiosity and for some, specially Lupa, hostility. Polly soon noticed them too, but she was definitely happier to see them.

"Well, look who joined earlier!" Polly chirped. "Fancy seeing you here, Lacy!"

"Aunt Polly?" Lacy blurted in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, nothing much, just joining Tabby in her quest to find Haiku and Giggles before the owner of this place transforms them into their minions," Polly waved her hands. "You know, typical Wednesday!"

"Today's a Friday," Tabby pointed out.

"I have a dozen and one questions forming in my head right now," Leia said.

"Really? 'Cause I only have one," Lupa summoned her soul scythe. "Why aren't we forcing them off the planet!?"

Lacy calmly summoned her wings and flew up. "Why am I not surprised you're the first one to decide to attack?"

Leia and Lizy promptly chained each other and formed Lezy. "Lupe, Gloom, leave these two to us, you try to see if the people they're looking for really are here!"

"And if they're not, we have to ask them to leave, got it," Lupe nodded. "Let's go, Gloom!"

The scientific pair left, leaving the lovechildren to face off against the friends of Luna and Lynn... Well, all but Liberty, who followed the scientific duo before she closed the door.

Polly and Tabby simply exchanged perplexed looks at the very sudden turn of events. "Is this really necessary?" Tabby asked.

"Shut up, Concubine of God!" Lupa exclaimed, aiming her scythe at Tabby as he hair shadowed her eyes. "You made the mistake of coming here in the first place!"

"Polly, what did she call me?" Tabby sternly inquired.

Polly frowned. "A... Concubine..."

A deep breath was taken, and as if on cue, Polly summoned a pair of fire wings and surrounded both herself and Tabby in the surrounding fire as the winged girl let out some kind of... Screech? Scream? It was hard to tell what it was.

What wasn't hard to tell, however, was what the duo were doing inside the sphere of fire: the mashing of their forms made it crystal clear, with the fire spgere promptly spreading away as the shadowed figure spread four wings, surrounded by a purple, fiery aura that somehow covered her figure.

"Impossible!" Lemy exclaimed. "Fusion's only possible between at least one memver of the Loud family!"

"Hmph, we're not surprised Lincoln's children would share his naivety," the figure spoke with both Tabby and Polly's voices. "He created fusion to be used by all creatures, regardless of allegiance to the Loud family!"

"Even if that's true, you're way over your head!" Lezy proclaimed. "You're fighting five children of Lincoln, and a fusion between two of them! There's no way you can win!"

The figure chuckled. "Oh really?"

The figure took a battle stance as she opened her eyes, revealing sclera that resembled space itself and pupils that resembled the sun.

"Let us prove you wrong!"


	53. Separation

**So by the time I post this, the first (or at least an) episode of The Casagrandes should've aired. If you saw it, what did you think? Was it good?**

 **Still don't have the confidence to reply fully to reviews yet, life's been kicking my phone's life, so, let's go for a summary:**

 **1) Nobody245: We will see the changes when or if they are relevant. And yeah, Lincolnism is weird.**

 **2) Observant Guest: Simply put, had Luan not done what she did, things would have played out very differently.**

 **Sorry for any inconveniences.**

* * *

 **Episode 53: A Forceful Separation?! Deeper Into The Lisapolis Castle!**

* * *

At the interior of the castle of Lisapolis, the group were taken right in the middle of the very first floor before the things covering their feet dispersed into what looked like black light, with most of it returning to the ground while the rest hovered around the place.

"What's that stuff?" Ronnie Anne asked.

"Nanomachines."

Everybody turned to a monitor, which showed none other than Proto-Lisa on the screen.

"They're the very object that keeps Lisapolis running as smoothly and efficiently as it is, not to mention they make up most of the planet's mass: the ground, the buildings, the creatures, they got nanomachines."

"So it's like a grey goo scenario," Lisa remarked, taking a look at the objects. "Only instead of nanotechnology eating stuff, it already occupies the entirety of the planet."

Once the nanomachines started to leave, Lisa put her index and middle finger close to her head and aimed her hand at them... Which did absolutely nothing.

"Sorry, but the nanomachines aren't just like creatures you can control at your will: they have specific programming preventing them from being overtaken by you," Proto-Lisa replied with a sly smile. "I do, however, invite you to try create nanomachines of your own. I bet that would be very interesting."

"We don't have time for that!" Lola snapped. "We need to get the antidote for Lindsey and whoever else could've possibly been infected with Lisa's science stuff!"

"And we need to find out why the monitor sent us here of all places," Lynn Sr. Added. "There are literally an infinite number of planets in the universe! If it picked this one in particular, it has to be for a reason."

"Well, I want to find out why was Chandler kidnapped by that pink Rock-O knock off," Ronnie Anne said. "I mean, what could she possibly need from him?"

"While I would like to find out about that too," Clyde interjected. "I think we can all agree that the biggest concern is finding Proto-Lisa and find out whether she's on our side or not."

"She's a progenitor, she couldn't possibly be on our side," Ronnie Anne growled. "Heck, she's probably not even here in person."

"I'm still hearing you, you know?" Proto-Lisa blurted. "And if I may add my two space cents, there's no way you can all agree on a single goal: everybody wants something different."

"Then I suggest we split up so we cover more ground," Ronnie Anne remarked. "We're no longer-"

Clyde immediately covered Ronnie Anne's mouth with his hand. "Ronnie Anne, did you forget that last time you tempted fate, the ship got shot down by a giant robot?"

"She still has a point, though," Lynn Sr. scratched his chin. "If we split up, we can cover more ground and see to our individual goals faster."

"Then this is how we'll do it, we'll split into duos: Lisa and Lola, Lincoln and Clyde, Ronnie Anne and Carol, and Lynn and I," Rita said, folding her arms. "Anybody got any questions?"

"Yeah, what about me?" Chandler asked. "In case you forgot, I'm stuck with you until we find a way back home."

"You can go with Ronnie Anne," Carol remarked, earning a furious look from the girl. "I need to go alone to meet my goal, anyway."

"I see, if that's what everybody chooses," Proto-Lisa smirked. "Then allow me to give you a hand."

Proto-Lisa snapped her fingers, and everybody besides Lincoln and Clyde were swept away elsewhere with a handful of nanomachines, bringing a smile to her face.

"Where did you take them!?" Clyde snapped.

"Calm down, my little guinea pig, you'll get your answers eventually," Proto-Lisa replied as Clyde gritted his teeth. "For now, just focus on what you and Neo-Lincoln have to do."

The screen turned to static and revealed a map soon after. "Deeper within the exact spot you are, there's a large machine that will begin a process to properly split both Lincoln and Sincoln from each other. Head there."

"Wait, what?" Lincoln raised an eyebrow. "You have a machine that can supposedly split Sincoln out of my body? That doesn't sound like something you'd just have laying around."

"It isn't: truth be told, I've been sending a good deal of my time making sure that there's at least one way ready to split the gods of good and evil from each other," Proto-Lisa explained as the screen turned back to show her. "After that, there's no need to point out the obvious: you'll be able to properly destroy your evil half once and for all."

"That's a laugh!"

Everybody turned around and saw Sincoln suddenly materialized, leaning against the wall. "Do you really think Junior's dumb enough to fall for such a trap?"

"You come into existence just as I finish telling Neo-Lincoln how to split you off him so he can kill you," Proto-Lisa recapped. "I can tell you're confident. Either that, or way too dumb."

"You got quite the nerves to think you can manipulate Junior into falling for your trap," Sincoln spat. "He knows better than that, kid!"

"If he really knows better, he'll soon see that I'm telling the truth," Proto-Lisa shrugged. "After all, you've been nothing more than a nuisance for him."

"What proof do you-"

"When Proto-Lola did the beauty pageant fiasco, you suddenly took control when he was knocked out, only to fail to defeat Proto-Lola when you had the chance."

"I was suffering whiplash from the fact I couldn't use the powers I could before!"

"But you had no such excuse during the time Proto-Lana raised Atlantis from the deep ocean. In fact, you were quite clearly fighting with Lincoln during the entire time that happened, preventing him from helping destroy Proto-Lana in the end."

"T-That's-"

"And let's not forget what happened with Proto-Lucy. Now, I'm not entirely sure what happened, but apparently she fused with Lucy and became such an intensely powerful menace that only Lincoln could surpass her... And just when he was about to destroy her, you popped up."

"Shut up."

"You forced Lincoln to watch as she killed her own champion."

"Shut up!"

"All to try and convince him to forgo his empathy for the lower lifeforms, to convince him to turn into someone like you!"

Finally, Sincoln couldn't take the blame any longer and shot an energy blast at the screen, completely pulverizing it as both he, Clyde, and Lincoln calmed down: Sincoln took a couple deep breaths, Clyde stood wide-eyed, and Lincoln had his head lowered, his hair obscuring his eyes as Sincoln turned to him and barked:

"Don't listen to her, Junior, she's just trying to get on your head! You can use omnipresence and telepathy to locate everyone and head over to their location, so do that, gather the whole team again, and head to the throne room to kick her ass!"

Lincoln, however, wasn't budging.

"Um, hello? I'm giving you an order! Get everyone back, get together again and-"

As soon as Sincoln grabbed Lincoln's hand, the boy's eyes glew Orage as he launched a punch right at his face, sending Sincoln flying through the walls until he crashed off into a tree outside, leaving a crater behind.

He teleported back into the castle seconds later.

"Clyde," Lincoln said, getting the guy's attention. "We're heading to the spot Proto-Lisa talked about. We're going to get Sincoln out of my system before we do anything else."

"What?!" Clyde and Sincoln exclaimed in unison.

Lincoln began walking ahead, focusing on the road indicated by the map.

"Um, Earth to Junior, it's a trap!" Sincoln snapped, quickly healing the damage done by the punch. "She's clearly planning to split us apart so she can weaken you! And trust me, with Loudgeddon on the horizon, you should try your hardest not to get weaker!"

"And I'm supposedly stronger with a headache like you inside of me?" Lincoln asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sincoln gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes, but said nothing.

"Lincoln, I know you probably don't want to hear this from me: but we're in another planet that's completely under the control of a progenitor," Clyde spoke, putting a hand on Lincoln's shoulder. "What if Sincoln's right and we can't trust Proto-Lisa?"

" _What_ if I'm right!?" Sincoln parroted. "I _am_ right! I'm _always_ right!"

Clyde's eyes glew Orange as he turned around, aimed his arm cannon at Sincoln, and shot a rainbow blast at him, returning to reality soon afterwards.

"She's the only one who's suggested us a way to get rid of Sincoln within me, and considering my power and the progenitor of what person we're talking about, she wouldn't just trick me into going to a trap," Lincoln stated. "Besides, she might also have an idea about what's going on with you. Didn't your prototype counterpart meet her in your vision?"

"He did, and besides the revelation your counterpart was supposed to destroy the original reality, she also mentioned something about a " Lincoln-Buster."

"Well, we can ask her about that project too. And we kill two birds with one stone."

"I... See what you mean... Okay, let's go."

With that said, the pair kept walking towards the designated machine, being pestered by Sincoln along the way.

* * *

Meanwhile, with Lola and Lisa, the latter was the first to stand up and rub her head, groaning as she saw the wall she was close to contorting, with some nanomachines almost breaking loose. Lisa, seeing this window of opportunity, held her hands forward and tried to manipulate the nanomachines.

It didn't work, and the wall turned back to normal.

"Ugh, my head," Lola whined as she stood up. "What just happened?"

"It seems that my counterpart used her control over the planet to send us off to somewhere else," Lisa answered, narrowing her eyes as she looked at her hands. "To think we'd find ourselves facing off against a progenitor with complete control over the location."

"Hey look, crystals!"

Lisa turned around and saw that yes, there were indeed a couple crystals sprouting from the ground, each crystal glowing Green and possessing a matrix-like design on the surface.

"What are crystals doing in a planet like this?" Lisa asked as she and Lola inspected the object. "I'd understand if this was inside a cave or something, but it's out here in the open!"

"Who cares about that?!" Lola replied, waving her hand. "What matters is that we have some ammunition to use with my powers!"

"Isn't it harder for you to channel your powers in your right hand?"

"I've had some practice. Let me show you!"

Lola aimed her hand forward to the crystal and concentrated, successfully... Doing nothing to it. She kept trying, of course, but she gave up as soon as the crystal didn't budge at maximum concentration.

"Why doesn't it work!?"

"They're made of nanomachines," Lisa stated as she took a closer look at the crystals. "Like my counterpart just said, everything in this planet, her planet, is made of nanomachines that she can control with her mind. If I knew how to control nanomachines I could try to see if I can move them, but alas, that's not the case."

"Well, from my experience, our siblings tend to stumble into their powers sooner or later, with some knowledge in how they work coming soon after," Lola shrugged. "Maybe we just need to wait for you to figure out " nanomanipulation" or something?"

"Do we even have time?"

Then, Lola turned around and her eyes widened. "We probably have more than these guys."

Lisa looked up, and her eyes widened as well as she stood up and scanned the walls, which were covered with green capsule-like... Things, holding several people captive, some showing parts of the same mutations Lola saw in Bobbie Fletcher.

"What is this place?"

"A testing facility."

The duo turned to see Proto-Lisa appear on another screen. "Since I can't trust the subjects to not fail during experimentation, this spot was recreated to serve as testing grounds for them."

"I recognize those looks," Lola remarked, looking at the mutabts once more. "They're the same kind of mutations that Bobbie Fletcher showed off back on Earth!"

"Ah, Bobbie Fletcher, certainly one of the better experiments to come out of this testing facility," Proto-Lisa mused. "Too bad she wound up going feral regardless."

"You jerk!" Lola snapped. "Tell us where's the antidote for the mutations!"

"For once, I agree with Lola," Lisa stated, crossing her arms. "Normally, I'm not one to care much for the consequences of experimentation, but this... All of this just goes too far!"

Proto-Lisa chuckled. "You really think I'm going to let you get away with not caring for living beings until now? For months, if not years, you've used not only animals but your own family as basea for your experiments, and that's something deserving of punishment."

Proto-Lisa snapped her fingers, and ear-piercing screeches were heard as the girls turned around and saw, to their horror, mutated creatures running down from the ceiling and landing on the ground, hissing at the girls.

The creatures physically resembled large rodents slightly bigger than the girls themselves, with the same spiky tail and other traits from the mutants

"What are these things?!" Lisa exclaimed, sounding legitimately worried.

"These "things" are the rodents you've used as guinea pigs for your experiments," Proto-Lisa answered with a sadistic smile. "And after coming back to life from dying to your curiosity, they'll be more than happy to return the favor."

The screen turned off just as the girls got ready to fight, and the gisnt rodents hissed at them again.

* * *

"Ugh, my head," Rita whined as she stood up. "Where did we land at?"

"A better question would be where did everybody else land?" Lynn Sr. Asked as he stood up and dusted himself. "Considering the entire place seems to be under the control of Proto-Lisa, it's very likely she didn't just send them elsewhere at random."

"Well, how would we feature into that idea?" Rita asked, rubbing her head. "I can understand her having specific places for the rest of the group, but why separate us as well?"

"Because she can't take any chances."

The parents turned around and saw none other than Mrs. Santiago approaching them, not keeping her bejeweled gauntlet hidden. She held a stern expression, which Rita quickly returned.

"Maria..."

"Mrs. Santiago!" Lynn Sr. Chirped as he walked up to the woman and shook hands with her. "What a coincidence to meet you here today!"

The woman's stern expression turned into an awkward smile as the handshake continued. "Uh, yeah, I was, uh, rather surprised too... For the most part."

Rita was quick to separate the two. "Okay, spill the beans: what are you doing here? Hoping to try use another messed up invention to control your daughter!?"

"I had forgotten we didn't part on the best of terms," Mrs. Santiago scratched her head. "But, in case you want to know-"

"And I do."

"-I'm here as a request from the master monitor. They gave me the same mission as you," Mrs. Santiago raised the gauntlet. "Right after they helped me get this nifty little trinket."

"That's an... Interesting gadget," Lynn Sr. Remarked, sounding slightly concerned. "What does it do?"

"It's simple really, with the gems encrusted on the knuckles, they allow me to channel the powers of the other castes," Mrs. Santiago clenched her gauntlet as the purple few glew, manipulating the gravity around herself until it turned off. "The monitor insisted that if I was to come, I needed some kind of way to even the odds."

"So you get to go to this planet with a nifty little gauntlet that lets you channel Lincoln, while we're left with nothing!?" Rita hissed.

"Well, if you had come to my house during the month before everybody left, maybe I could've made a gauntlet for you too," Mrs. Santiago countered.

"Okay, let's stop this discussion right now," Lynn Sr. Said, pushing the women away from each other. "There are far more pressing matters we should see first."

"Indeed there are," Mrs. Santiago spoke as she walked past the couple. "For example, the matter of the master monitor and the mind control collar."

Lynn Sr. Groaned and Rita narrowed her eyes as the woman began by saying:

"I made a big mistake."

The parents calmed down. "So you finally realize it," Rita scoffed.

"Yeah, the mistake is a problem," Mrs. Santiago sighed. "One so obvious I should've seen it coming from the start."

The uneasiness came back.

"The problem was that I was focusing on controlling not just a god, but the god," Maria chuckled. "I feel kind of silly after all that: even if I get the collar around his neck, not only would it not work, but he could simply destroy it with a thought. Not even a conscious one at that!"

Maria's laughter died down and she lowered her head. "No, the real purpose of the collar has to be used on someone weaker than Lincoln, yet still a divine being."

"Got any ideas for that?" Rita asked, slowly raising her hand forward.

Maria hummed, and after thinking about it for a while, she answered:

"Well, I think all things considered, Lori would be the best subject to try the collar on-"

A row of ice was shot straight at Mrs. Santiago, but the woman only needed to clench the gauntlet with the pink gem glowing, and the ice vanished from existence. She then turned around and saw Rita with her palm open, her hidden eyes nonetheless glowing with hatred.

"Why am I not surprised you choose to attack first?"

* * *

Ronnie Anne and Chandler regained consciousness and stood up, taking a quick look at their surroundings before coming to an obvious conclusion:

"Well, looks like we were sent elsewhere."

"Yeah, no kidding, sherlock," Ronnie Anne growled, folding her arms. "The better question would be why were we sent together? I can understand being stranded with just about everybody else, but why did I have to get stranded with you?!"

"Because, knowing what progenitor we're dealing with, it has to be part of her plan," Chandler scratched his chin. "A plan to disorient or distract us enough to deliver a fatal strike to us."

"Hmm, Science-O did seem to be a " man with a plan" type of girl, so I can believe her counterpart would be the same..." Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow and looked up. "Still, even if it's part of the plan, that was a jerk move."

Suddenly, a roar was heard, and the duo only got the chance to look around for a couple seconds before the source of the roar appeared: a giant beetle with goldeb skin, who roared again as it charged a beam on its mouth.

Ronnie Anne and Chandler separated before the beam was shot, and promptly unleashed a barrage of lighting attacks at the creature. However, it was still standing, and it charged another beam as Ronnie Anne kept attacking.

"Ronnie Anne!"

Chandler zoomed past Ronnie Anne and tackled her out of the beam's way, followed by Ronnie Anne pushing him away soon after.

"What are you doing!? I was just about to kill it!"

"You weren't making any progress!" Chandler looked back at the beetle. 'That thing absorbs lighting!"

Ronnie Anne raised an eyebrow, then hummed. "I guess that does make sense. So, what do we do?"

"Leave it to me!"

A light blue figure came down and landed on top of the beetle, generating a spear of lighting to stab the creature right in the head. It screamed in pain as lighting surged through it, bloating the creature until it exploded, not into blood and guts, but nanomachines.

The light blue figure landed next to the duo, revealing herself to ve none other than-

"Lori!"

The oldest sister smiled and flashed a peace sign.

"I can't-how did you-how," Chandler mumbled, pulling his hair. "That thing absorbed our lighting like it was nothing: how was your lighting able to damage it!?"

"The answer's simple, really," Lori swayed her hair proudly. "I'm a goddess."

Chandler took a deep breath. "Fair enough, I guess."

"What are you doing here, Lori?" Ronnie Anne inquired, rushing up to the oldest sister. "I thought you were back on Earth!"

"I was, but then Carol told me you were here, and I thought you'd need my help," Lori looked around. "Anyway, this place may look cool but it's really freaking dangerous. Let's go together until we find some help, alright?"

"I'm okay with that!" Ronnie Anne chirped.

Chandler, however, remained silent as he glared at Lori.

"I'll take your silence as a yes," Lori generated a sword of lighting and aimed it forward. "Let's go then!"

Ronnie Anne excitedly followed Lori as she lead them deeper into the castle, while Chandler kept his distance, narrowing his glare.

* * *

Carol woke up and looked around to see she had been separated from the group. But, apparently to her annoyance, she also noticed there were rxagons everywhere.

"Ugh, hexagons. Why does everything even remotely advanced have hexagons in their design?!"

"Don't ask me!"

Carol turned around just in time to see a pair of figures: Gloom and Lupe, the latter hastily blocking the former's mouth before shushing her.

"Oh hey, I recognize what type of lovechildren you are," Carol nonchalantly remarked as she stood up. "You're a Maggie and a Lisa lovechild, aren't you?"

The girls exchanged looks, then backed away slowly.

"Right, you probably know me as the Love Slayer," Carol nervously chuckled. "Look, I'm not here to hurt you or anybody. I just want help dealing with one of the progenitors-"

"Oh, we're not scared of you," Lupe hastily clarified. "The one we're afraid of... Is behind you."

Carol's eyes widened like dinner plates as she slowly turned around to face a large, yet vaguely humanoid figure with glowing eyes, her shock reaching its peak when she nervously smiled and waved at it.

The beast roared.

* * *

"U... Unbelievable."

Lemy looked around to see his siblings laying on the ground, with Lezy in particular cracking before splitting back into Leia and Lizy, while Link stood his ground, only having minor bruises.

As for Lemy, he was soon approached by the fusion, whose appearance was now clearer:

The figure had Tabby's jacket floating around Polly's shirt, which now had Tabby's colors, Tabby's skirt over Polly's shorts, and Tabby's boots with the wheels of Polly's skates attached to it. Her hair was tied in two fire-shaped ponytails, with the rest of the hair rising up, Tabby's purple line going up with a more fiery shape as well.

"I mean, two of the Four Loves were always going to be a tough fight, but to see you fuse and handle us like that..." Lemy lowered his head. "I never thought this would happen."

"All we really want is to find out whether Giggles and Haiku are here," the fuaion replied with a calm tone. "If you had told us whether you knew or didn't knew they were here, we would've left you alone."

"Lies!"

The fusion turned around and looked at Lupa as she struggled to stand up, summoning her soul scythe once more as she growled:

"Lincoln's lovers... Would never leave his children alone... Especially those born between him and his sisters... You would get rid of us if it meant getting Dad all for yourself!"

"Yeah, there's a little problem with your theory," the fusion stated. "We're not the same Polly and Tabby from your dimension: we're not particularly interested with Lincoln, we wouldn't have problems with his children, and you attacked us first and called half of us a concubine!"

"Because that's what you are!" Lupa yelled.

The fusion rolled her eyes. "We don't have time for this, we need to look for Giggles and Haiku."

The fusion charged some fire in her mouth, then sang a melody as she shot it at Lupa, the attack seemingly connecting as she was enveloped in a cloud smoke, and the fusion walked away.

And then the cloud dispersed, revealing Link had taken the brunt of the blast, right before he leaped and swung his sword at the combined being... Who blocked it with her wings.

"Out of the entire group, you were probably the only one to give us any trouble," the fusion said as she dusted herself. "Even so, you're not as strong as a child between what's basically Lincoln squared would be."

The fusion raised an eyebrow. "You were holding back, weren't you?"

Link's eyes widened as the combined being continued, "Something, or someone, will come very soon, and it will be someone so dangerous, you will need all of your strength just to repel them back."

Link stopped attacking and jumped back, absorbing the statement before narrowing his eyes. "Just who are you?"

"Hmm, fusions tend to combine their component names, so... You can call me Tally."

With that said, Tally flashed a peace sign and flew away, leaving the lovechildren to recovee their strength... Just before a certain someone chased after the fusion.

It was Lulu, her eyes still glowing Green.


End file.
